STORIES 


THRIFT 


YOUNG 
AMERICANS 


I 


MYRON  TPRITCHARD 


AND 


GRACE  A.TURKINGTON 


Hfl      ■ 


* 

•   ■ 

-  ■ 


"  TJ    ' 


He's  starting  in  today  to  be  a  business  man. 

dollars  for  you." 


He  has  six 


STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

FOR 

YOUNG  AMERICANS 


BY 

MYRON  T.  PRITCHARD 

PRINCIPAL  OF  EVEKETT  SCHOOL,  BOSTON,  MASS. 

AND 

GRACE  A.  TURKINGTON 


CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK         BOSTON         CHICAGO 


o  \ 


\ 


Copyright,  1915,  by 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


PREFACE 

One  of  our  richest  men  has  said:  " Thrift  is  such  a 
simple  thing — and  it  means  so  much.  It  is  the  founda- 
tion of  success  in  business,  of  contentment  in  the  home, 
of  standing  in  society."  Perhaps  it  is  because  thrift  is 
such  a  simple  thing  that  so  many  of  us  have  only  a  slight 
acquaintance  with  it.  This  country  is  full  of  rich  and 
wonderful  things,  and  the  boy  and  the  girl,  long  before 
they  are  out  of  the  grammar  school,  set  their  hearts  on 
attaining  some  of  these  wonders  as  quickly  as  possible. 
They  overlook  the  simple  joys  and  the  simple  habits,  not 
realizing  that  the  world's  treasures  are  obtained  only  by 
those  who  have  first  mastered  the  art  of  simple  living. 

The  secret  of  simple  living  is  thrift — thrift  of  time, 
money,  body,  and  brain — and  only  upon  this  can  the  boy 
or  the  girl  build  securely  for  success.  But  in  this,  as  in 
other  things,  young  people  must  be  instructed,  for  both 
the  man  who  piles  up  his  thousands  and  the  man  who 
wantonly  wastes  his  dollars  are  only  creatures  of  habit. 
Those  who  are  to  succeed  must  have  the  habit  of  thrift. 
The  boy  who,  when  he  is  fifteen  years  old,  knows  how 
to  make  his  suits  and  his  shoes  last  as  long  as  possible, 

•  •  • 

in 

376091 


iv  PREFACE 

who  wastes  neither  his  study-time  nor  his  play-time,  who 
already  has  a  bank  account,  however  small,  who  takes 
sensible  care  of  his  health,  is  sure  to  succeed.  He  may 
not  make  a  fortune  in  dollars  and  cents,  but  he  will  be 
independent  and  a  credit  to  the  community  in  which  he 
lives. 

To  many  persons  the  word  " thrift"  suggests  only  the 
saving  of  money,  and  those  who  are  not  earners  feel  that 
it  is  not  for  them  to  make  thrift  their  motto.  But  the 
mother  in  the  home  who  so  plans  her  meals  that  her  family 
gets  the  maximum  of  nourishment  for  the  least  expendi- 
ture of  money  and  without  any  waste  is  as  truly  thrifty 
as  the  woman  who  works  for  wages  and  each  month  adds 
to  her  bank  account.  So  also  the  boy  or  the  girl  who 
wastes  no  opportunities  and  guards  carefully  the  health 
of  the  body  is  forming  habits  of  thrift  that  will  mean 
happiness  and  prosperity  in  the  future.  Children  are 
quick  to  see  the  folly  of  waste  once  it  is  pointed  out  to 
them,  and  no  child  should  go  untaught  in  this  important 
matter. 

The  tide  of  popular  opinion  for  vocational  training  is 
running  strong,  and  is,  perhaps,  the  greatest  single  thrift 
factor  now  in  operation.  Training  for  a  life-work  means 
preventing  boys  and  girls  from  wasting  their  lives,  but 
even  a  well-trained  brain  and  body  may  take  a  boy  to 
failure  if  he  has  not  also  learned  how  to  spend  wisely  and 


PREFACE  v 

how  to  save.  The  slogan  of  this  country  in  the  future 
must  be  "  Conservation  of  all  our  resources/'  but  not 
until  each  grammar-school  graduate  knows  how  to  prac- 
tise true  thrift  will  the  highest  prosperity  of  the  coun- 
try be  assured. 

The  parents  and  teachers  of  today  have  an  unusual 
opportunity  to  train  for  efficiency  the  men  and  women 
of  tomorrow. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.    What  Thrift  Is 1 

II.     Saving  Health 6 

III.  Savings-Bank 17 

IV.  The  "Making-Over"  Club 29 

V.  The  "Making-Over"  Club  (continued)       .     .  40 

VI.    Wise  Spending 51 

VII.     Spare  Time 63 

VIII.    One  Way  Out 74 

IX.    One  Way  Out  (continued) 85 

X.    Being  Poor 94 

XI.    Wasted  Old  People 106 

XII.    Being  Rich 118 

XIII.  Right  Giving 126 

XIV.  Saving  Money 141 

XV.    Keeping  Accounts 150 

XVI.  The  Cost  of  Carelessness  and  Neglect    .  162 

XVII.     Leaving  School 172 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 


PAGE 


XVIII.  If  You  Had  a  Hundred  Dollars      ....  183 

XIX.  Cleanliness  and  Thrift 193 

XX.  Owning  a  Home 207 

XXI.  How  a  Nation  Helps  to  Save 216 


V. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

"He's  starting  in  today  to  be  a  business  man.     He  has  six 

dollars  for  you  " Frontispiece 

FACING     PAGE 

"Emma  bought  the  skates  with  the  money  she  might  have 

spent  on  candy  " 4 

The  idea  in  every  case  was  to  help  out  the  home  by  growing 

vegetables 44 

These  eleven  boys  spent  seven  busy  days  sightseeing  in  and 

about  Washington 64 

"Half  the  boys  in  the  playground  are  wasting  playtime"       .       72 

"These  automobile  travellers  are  the  hungriest  kind  of  folks"       SO 

"The  articles  were  given  to  a  friend  of  mine  last  Christmas 

and  she  has  had  them  packed  away  in  the  attic"  .     .     .     134 

The  clerk  tried  to  explain  that  the  blankets  would  be  much 

more  serviceable 200 


STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

FOR 

YOUNG    AMERICANS 


STORIES  OF  THRIFT  FOR  YOUNG 

AMERICANS 


WHAT  THRIFT  IS 

"I  think  Emma  Jones  is  just  as  stingy  as  she  can  be/' 
said  Esther  Madison  to  her  mother,  one  night  when  the 
two  were  washing  dishes. 

"I  should  think  twice  before  I  said  anything  as  un- 
kind as  that  about  one  of  my  friends/'  her  mother  re- 
plied.    "Tell  me  what  you  mean." 

"Why,  this  afternoon  five  of  us  girls  were  going  to 
buy  some  candy.  We  were  each  to  give  five  cents,  but 
Emma  wouldn't;  she's  always  that  way.  She  never 
treats  any  of  the  girls  to  soda,  or  spends  her  money  on 
having  a  good  time." 

Mrs.  Madison  looked  thoughtful  as  she  said:  "Emma 
has  always  impressed  me  as  being  a  bright,  sensible  girl. 
She  doesn't  look  at  all  mean  or  selfish.  Perhaps  she 
had  a  good  reason  for  not  spending  her  money  on  candy." 

It  was  nearly  a  month  after  this  conversation  that, 
one  Sunday,  Esther  asked  her  father  for  money  to  buy 


2  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

a  pair  of  skates,  saying:  "Emma  has  just  bought  a 
lovely  pair,  and  her  brother  is  teaching  her." 

"H'm,  so  you  want  a  pair  of  skates?  How  much  will 
they  cost?"  asked  her  father. 

" Three  dollars  is  what  Emma  paid." 

"  Can't  you  buy  them  out  of  your  spending-money  ? 
That's  what  I  give  you  twenty  cents  a  week  for,"  said 
Mr.  Madison.  "How  much  money  have  you,  any- 
way?" 

Esther's  face  grew  red,  and  she  fidgeted  a  little  as 
she  said:  "Why,  I  haven't  any.  Twenty  cents  a  week 
isn't  much.     If  I  saved  it  I  couldn't  have  any  fun." 

"Something's  wrong  somewhere,"  said  her  father. 
"Sit  down  and  write  out  how  you  have  spent  your 
money  for  the  last  month,  and  let  me  see  it." 

Mrs.  Madison  said  nothing,  but  looked  amused  as 
Esther  sat  nibbling  the  end  of  her  pencil  and  trying  to 
remember  how  her  money  had  been  spent.  Finally  she 
handed  her  father  a  slip  of  paper,  which  read  as  follows: 

Candy $.30 

Bracelet 50 

"Bracelet,  fifty  cents!"  her  father  repeated.  "What 
does  that  mean?  What  kind  of  bracelet  can  you  buy 
for  fifty  cents?  Go  get  it,  please.  I  should  like  to  see 
it." 


WHAT  THRIFT  IS  3 

In  a  moment  Esther  was  back  and  laid  on  the  table 
a  silver-colored  bracelet,  set  with  some  small  blue  stones. 

"Do  you  think  this  is  either  pretty  or  useful?"  asked 
her  father.  "  Of  course,  you  know  that  there  isn't  a  bit  of 
silver  in  it,  and  that  these  stones  are  nothing  but  glass." 

Esther  tried  to  defend  herself  by  saying:  "All  the  girls 
have  bracelets,  and  I  think  they  are  pretty." 

"Does   Emma   Jones   wear   a   bracelet   to    school?' 
asked  Mr.  Madison. 

"No,  but  she's  the  only  girl  that  doesn't.  She  is 
stingy  with  her  money." 

"Why,  I  thought  you  liked  Emma;  you  are  always 
asking  your  mother  if  you  can't  go  up  to  her  house 
Saturdays.  If  she  is  stingy,  she  can't  be  a  nice  girl  to 
have  good  times  with." 

"What  I  mean  is,  she  won't  spend  money  to  have  a 
good  time,  as  the  other  girls  do.  But  I  like  to  go  up 
to  her  house  because  she  can  always  plan  interesting 
things  to  do." 

Her  father  smiled  as  he  said:  "I  suppose  what  you 
mean  is  that  she  doesn't  spend  her  money  for  candy 
and  bracelets.  If  that  is  so,  she  is  a  girl  that  her  father 
might  well  be  proud  of,  and  I  hope  you'll  learn  from 
her.  There  is  nothing  more  vulgar  than  wearing  cheap 
jewelry,  so  I  want  you  to  throw  away  the  bracelet  at 


once." 


4  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"Don't  you  suppose,  Esther/'  her  mother  asked, 
"that  Emma  bought  the  skates  with  the  money  she 
might  have  spent  on  candy?" 

"Perhaps  so,"  admitted  Esther  reluctantly. 

"One  of  the  differences  between  a  wise  person  and  a 
foolish  person,  and  between  a  rich  man  and  a  poor  man," 
said  Mrs.  Madison,  "is  that  one  spends  his  money 
carefully  and  wisely,  and  the  other  unwisely.  Emma's 
father  is  just  as  poor  as  that  Mr.  Lathrop  whose  chil- 
dren are  always  out  at  the  elbows,  and  whose  fences  are 
always  tumbled  down,  but  Mr.  Jones  and  his  family 
are  thrifty  people,  while  Mr.  Lathrop  isn't." 

"What  is  thrifty?"  interrupted  Esther. 

"Well,"  said  her  father,  "Emma  is  thrifty  and  you 
are  not.  But  don't  think  that  thrifty  means  stingy, 
for  it  doesn't.  I  will  let  you  think  it  over,  and  you 
can  tell  me  later  what  the  word  means." 

Esther  forgot  all  about  the  talk  until  Thursday  night, 
when,  on  the  way  home  from  school,  her  cousin  Robert 
and  some  of  his  boy  friends  joined  her. 

"Why  don't  you  learn  to  skate,  Esther?"  asked  her 
cousin.  "Emma  Jones  has  been  learning  and  we  are 
having  great  fun.  She's  going  to  be  one  of  the  finest 
girl  skaters  around  here  before  long." 

Esther  thought  more  of  her  cousin's  good  opinion 
than  she  would  have  admitted  and  it  hurt  her  pride  to 


>    I 


"Emma  bought  the  skates  with  the  money  she  might  have 

spent  on  candy." 


WHAT  THRIFT  IS  5 

have  to  say  that  she  could  not  afford  any  skates  just 
then  but  hoped  she  could  have  a  pair  next  winter.  It 
was  becoming  plain  to  her  that  a  person  might  get  more 
pleasure  out  of  money  spent  in  one  way  than  that  spent 
in  another.  She  could  not  even  remember  how  the 
candy  that  she  had  bought  last  week  tasted,  and  since 
her  father  said  her  bracelet  had  no  silver  in  it  she  had 
not  enjoyed  wearing  it. 

"  Father  says  that  I  haven't  been  thrifty  and  have 
wasted  my  spending  money/'  said  Esther  to  Robert. 
What  does  thrifty  mean,  anyway?" 
Why,  I  always  supposed  it  meant  prosperous,  but 
I'm  not  sure.  I'll  ask  Miss  Martin  tomorrow."  So  the 
next  day  Robert  asked  his  teacher  what  the  word  meant. 

"It  means  being  industrious  in  whatever  you  under- 
take, wasting  nothing,  whether  time,  money,  or  ma- 
terials. The  really  thrifty  persons  are  those  who  waste 
nothing  and  spend  wisely." 

When  Esther  repeated  this  to  her  father,  he  said: 
"That's  my  idea  exactly.  And  I'm  sure  if  you  will  be 
thrifty  for  the  next  year,  at  the  end  of  it  you  will  be 
happier  and  more  useful  to  your  mother  and  to  your 
friends  than  you  are  now." 


u 
u 


II 

SAVING  HEALTH 

"Take  her  out  of  school  at  once/'  said  the  doctor  to 
Mrs.  Emery.  "You  can't  afford  to  run  any  risks. 
Mary  is  five  pounds  under  her  normal  weight,  and  is 
decidedly  anaemic." 

"What's  anaemic?"  asked  Mary. 

"Your  blood  is  too  thin;  perhaps  you  might  call  it 
watery.  It  takes  good,  rich  red  blood  to  study  on,  and 
until  you  improve  at  least  fifty  per  cent  you  must  keep 

9 

out  of  school  and  build  up  your  health." 

Mary's  face  was  sober  and  the  tears  were  near  the 
surface.  She  had  thought  it  was  going  to  be  great  fun 
to  consult  the  doctor  and  have  to  take  little  pink  tab- 
lets with  her  meals,  as  her  chum  Etta  Roberts  did.  But 
to  leave  school  was  something  she  hadn't  dreamed  of. 
Why — she  simply  couldn't !  That  was  all  there  was  to 
it.  To  stay  out  of  school  six  months  meant  that  she 
would  fall  so  far  behind  in  all  her  studies  that  she  would 
have  to  go  in  with  the  next  lower  class.     But  Mary 

knew  that  it  would  be  futile  to  argue  with  the  doctor. 

6 


SAVING  HEALTH  7 

He  had  a  stern  face  and  was  used  to  having  his  patients 
do  exactly  as  he  directed. 

That  night  Mary  wept  a  good  many  tears  into  her 
pillow. 

The  next  day  at  school  she  stayed  in  at  recess  to  tell 
her  teacher  what  the  doctor  had  said.  "But  I  am  not 
sick,  Miss  Elwood,"  Mary  added  plaintively.  "Won't 
you  please  ask  mother  to  let  me  stay?" 

Miss  Elwood  replied  that  she  would  talk  with  her 
about  it  after  school.  Mary  Emery  was  one  of  the  best 
scholars  in  her  grade,  but  she  had  for  a  long  time  been 
nervous  and  pale.  That  afternoon,  with  pleading  eyes 
and  nervous  fingers,  Mary  waited  to  hear  what  her 
teacher  would  say. 

"I  am  going  to  suggest  an  experiment  for  you  to  make, 
Mary/'  said  Miss  Elwood.  Mary  looked  a  little  per- 
plexed but  hopeful.  "You  won't  like  it,  but  I  think  it 
is  the  only  way  that  you  can  remain  in  school.  If  you 
are  anaemic,  then  neither  your  muscles  nor  your  nerves 
get  the  food  they  need.  This  is  what  makes  you  pale, 
gives  you  headaches,  and  makes  you  want  to  cry  so 
often.  In  a  few  years  you  will  either  break  down  en- 
tirely or  just  be  a  fretful,  uninteresting  girl  that  every- 
body will  be  sorry  for  but  that  few  will  like." 

"I  never  knew  that  people  stopped  liking  you  just 
because  you  were  sick,"  said  Mary. 


8  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 


u 


Suppose  that  every  time  your  friends  asked  you  to 
play  a  certain  game  you  said  your  head  ached  too  badly, 
how  long  would  they  keep  asking  you?  Or,  if  every 
time  a  girl  came  to  your  house  to  see  you,  you  were  too 
tired  to  make  her  have  a  good  time,  would  she  keep  com- 
ing? No,  Mary,  sickly  people  seldom  have  as  many 
friends  as  those  who  are  well." 

"I  never  thought  of  that  before/'  murmured  Mary. 

"I  think  I  know  better,  even  than  the  doctor,  what 
has  made  you  anaemic.  How  much  spending-money  do 
you  have?" 

Mary,  astonished,  answered:  "Twenty-five  cents  a 
week." 

"And  what  do  you  do  with  it?" 

"Why,  I  buy  things,  of  course." 

"I  believe  that  the  secret  of  your  trouble,  Mary,  lies 
in  that  twenty-five  cents  a  week.  The  things  that  you 
buy  with  the  money  are  harmful  to  you.  I  have  noticed 
that  you  have  more  candy,  cookies,  and  pickled  limes- 
than  most  of  the  other  girls.  At  recess  time,  instead  of 
going  out  into  the  yard  to  run  about,  you  get  in  a  corner 
with  a  bag  of  candy  and  read.  Cookies  and  candy  are 
all  right  in  their  place,  but  they  are  too  sweet  and  rich 
to  eat  between  meals.  One  reason  why  you  are  anaemic 
is  because  you  spoil  your  appetite  by  eating  too  much 
sweet  and  sour  stuff." 


SAVING  HEALTH  9 

"I  never  spend  more  than  five  cents  a  day  for  candy/' 
said  Mary. 

"  Nevertheless,  I  am  sure  that  what  little  candy  you 
eat  keeps  you  from  being  healthily  hungry  at  meal- 
time, so  that  you  fail  to  eat  as  much  meat,  potato,  and 
other  nourishing  food  as  you  need.     Isn't  this  true?" 

" Perhaps  so,"  Mary  admitted  reluctantly. 

"Now,"  continued  Miss  Elwood,  "my  suggestion  is 
this:  I  want  you  for  three  months  to  save  all  your  spend- 
ing-money,  and  to  promise  not  to  eat  any  candy,  pickles, 
or  cookies  between  meals." 

Mary's  face  was  disconsolate  and  a  few  tears  trickled 
down  her  cheeks,  but  Miss  Elwood  continued: 

"Then  I  want  you  to  spend  all  your  recesses  out-of- 
doors.  If  you  don't  care  to  play  games,  then  have  a 
walking  race  with  some  of  your  friends.  Stir  about 
enough  to  fill  your  lungs  with  fresh  air  and  make  your 
blood  circulate  more  freely. 

"In  addition  to  these  two  parts  of  the  experiment 
there  is  a  third.  You  do  not  always  wear  the  most 
sensible  things,  and  perhaps  this  explains  where  some  of 
your  spending-money  goes.  Now  that  the  weather  is 
rainy  and  cold,  you  ought  to  protect  yourself  with  high 
boots  and  rubbers.  Instead  of  that,  much  of  the  time 
you  wear  thin  stockings  and  pumps,  which  are  fit  only 
to  wear  in  the  house.    It  would  be  much  better  for  you 


10  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

to  save  your  money  and  buy  warm  stockings;  sensible 
shoes,  good  rubbers,  and  overshoes. 

"Now,  if  for  three  months  you  are  willing  to  go  with- 
out candy  and  pickles  and  eat  only  nourishing  food,  to 
keep  out-of-doors  all  that  you  can,  and  to  put  your  pumps 
and  thin  stockings  away  until  next  summer,  I  will  try  to 
persuade  your  mother  and  the  doctor  to  let  you  stay  in 
school  for  three  months  longer.  At  the  end  of  that 
time,  if  you  have  followed  my  suggestions,  I  think  the 
doctor  will  say  you  are  almost  well." 

"But  the  doctor  didn't  tell  me  not  to  eat  candy," 
Mary  said  appealingly. 

Miss  Elwood  looked  a  little  stern  as  she  answered: 
"He  probably  doesn't  know  that  you  spend  twenty-five 
cents  each  week  on  such  things.  Do  you  want  me  to 
explain  this  to  him?" 

Mary  was  earnest  in  her  protests,  and  at  once  prom- 
ised to  make  the  experiment. 

"You  must  not  let  this  spoil  your  good  times,  Mary," 
her  teacher  said  kindly.  "Remember  that  nobody  can 
be  happy  without  good  health." 

The  experiment  was  not  an  easy  one.  Mary  at  first 
accepted  candy  from  her  schoolmates,  although  her  con- 
science told  her  that  this  was  not  fair.  But  after  a 
little  she  held  to  the  rule  to  eat  cookies  and  all  very 
sweet  things  only  after  regular  meals.     She  was  sur- 


SAVING  HEALTH  11 

prised  to  find  that  after  a  dinner  of  meat  and  potato  or  a 
supper  of  simple,  nourishing  food  she  could  not  eat  more 
than  two  or  three  pieces  of  candy. 

Mary  and  her  brother  Robert  had  always  called  milk 
babies'  food,  and  had  refused  to  drink  it  with  their  meals. 
To  Mrs.  Emery's  surprise,  soon  after  Mary's  talk  with 
her  teacher,  she  asked  if  she  could  have  a  glass  of  milk 
with  her  supper.  Robert  at  once  spoke  up:  " Babies' 
food !  I  thought  you  had  outgrown  long  dresses  years 
ago." 

"Well,  you'd  better  not  talk.  It's  a  secret.  I  can't 
tell  you  about  it  now,  but  for  three  months  I'm  going 
to  drink  milk  every  night,"  answered  Mary. 

Robert  was  much  impressed  by  the  idea  of  a  secret, 
and  teased  to  be  told  what  it  was,  but  his  sister  refused 
to  explain. 

One  day,  a  few  weeks  later,  Miss  Elwood  telephoned 
to  her  principal  and  asked  him  to  come  to  her  room  a 
moment.  It  was  recess  time,  and  when  the  principal 
appeared  Miss  Elwood  called  him  to  the  window  and 
pointed  out  a  group  of  girls.  Mary  Emery  was  teach- 
ing several  of  her  friends  to  vault  a  sawhorse  that  the 
carpenters  had  been  using.  No  one  could  do  it  quite 
so  well  as  Mary  herself,  but  they  were  all  trying. 

"Who  is  the  leader?"  asked  the  principal. 

"Mary  Emery,"  replied  the  teacher. 


12  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"Not  the  sickly  girl  that  you  were  afraid  wouldn't  be 
promoted?" 

"The  very  same/'  and  Miss  El  wood  smiled  at  the  as- 
tonished look  on  the  principal's  face. 

"How  did  you  do  it,  Miss  Elwood?" 

"Mary  is  doing  it  herself.  I  will  tell  you  about  it 
later." 

The  result  of  the  experiment  was  that  Mary  gained 
six  pounds,  lost  her  headaches,  saved  two  dollars,  and 
did  not  lose  a  day  at  school.  Not  only  this,  but  Mary's 
mother  was  saved  a  large  doctor's  bill,  and  Mary  at  least 
a  half-year's  time  at  school. 

The  person  who  always  takes  the  best  possible  care  of 
his  health,  saves  himself  both  time  and  money.  Many 
girls  and  boys  fail  in  their  written  tests  just  because 
they  have  been  sitting  up  too  late  at  night,  or  eating  too 
much  sweet  food.  Of  course  there  is  always  the  chance 
that  a  boy  who  has  failed  may  make  up  for  failures  by 
studying  extra  hard.  But  this  is  a  waste  of  time,  for  he 
needs  all  this  energy  for  new  work.  The  boy  who  is 
always  trying  to  make  up  for  time  lost  through  sickness, 
when  he  gets  out  into  the  world  will  have  to  compete 
with  the  boy  who  is  always  well. 

Men  who  are  interested  in  the  health  of  school-children 
have  figured  out  that  it  takes  the  pupils  who  attend 
school  in  a  building  improperly  heated,  lighted,  and  ven- 


SAVING  HEALTH  13 

tilated  nearly  two  years  longer  to  complete  the  course  of 
eight  grades  than  it  does  those  children  whose  school  is 
sanitary  in  every  way.  That  is  why  old  school  build- 
ings are  being  torn  down  or  made  over.  The  health  of 
the  boys  and  girls  of  our  nation  is  regarded  as  of  the 
greatest  value,  and  towns  and  cities  are  willing  to  spend 
large  sums  of  money  to  provide  clean,  sanitary  buildings 
for  school  purposes.  No  boy  or  girl  wants  to  spend  two 
years  more  than  is  necessary  in  preparing  for  the  high 
school.  But  the  school  cannot  do  everything.  If  the 
pupils  are  given  a  warm,  airy  building,  they  must  do 
their  part  to  keep  well. 

A  group  of  schoolboys  was  one  day  heard  discussing 
Henry  Fowler's  "bad  luck."  They  had  just  had  a 
written  test  in  arithmetic,  and  three  of  the  questions 
were  on  factoring.  Henry  had  been  sick  with  a  severe 
cold  when  the  class  had  studied  factoring. 

"Oh,  Henry,"  suggested  one  of  the  boys,  "I  think 
Miss  Elwood  would  excuse  you  on  those  questions  if 
you  asked  her.    You  couldn't  help  being  sick." 

After  a  little  urging  Henry  went  to  his  teacher,  and 
asked  if  she  would  please  not  mark  him  on  the  factoring 
examples.  He  explained  that  he  had  been  sick,  and 
promised  to  make  up  the  work  as  soon  as  possible.  Miss 
Elwood  said  she  would  consider  the  matter.  But  when 
she  found  that  Henry  was  wasteful  of  his  time,  that  he 


14  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

had  caught  cold  by  splashing  in  a  shallow  pond  all  one 
Saturday  afternoon,  and  had  not  tried  to  make  up  the 
behindhand  work,  she  went  to  the  principal. 

The  next  day  the  principal  talked  with  Henry  a  long 
time. 

"The  boys  who  are  going  to  be  the  important  men  in 
a  few  years/'  he  said,  "are  those  who  are  the  most  saving 
of  their  health  and  their  time  now.  You  are  much  more 
likely  to  have  another  hard  cold  because  your  body  has 
already  been  weakened  by  one.  The  city  is  paying  for 
your  schooling  whether  you  are  present  or  not.  There- 
fore when  you  are  sick  you  are  not  only  spending  money 
for  medicine  and  a  doctor,  but  you  are  wasting  your 
mother's  time  and  your  teacher's.  Do  you  think  this 
is  quite  fair  ?  Your  teacher  is  here  every  day,  and  every 
day  the  lessons  are  on  time.  If  Miss  El  wood  should 
happen  to  be  too  ill  to  come  to  school,  the  city  would 
provide  another  teacher,  so  that  not  a  single  pupil  should 
be  cheated  of  help  in  his  studies.  Your  teacher  has  to 
take  the  greatest  care  of  her  health  in  order  to  be  here 
every  day.  If  she  were  as  careless  about  her  eating 
and  the  way  she  spent  her  spare  time  as  you  are,  all  the 
pupils  would  be  behind  in  their  lessons." 

Henry  said  nothing  further  to  the  boys  about  getting 
excused  from  his  examination.  He  had  learned  a  lesson, 
and  there  were  no  more  foolish  Saturday  afternoons. 


SAVING  HEALTH  15 

Health  is  wasted  not  only  by  school  boys  and  girls, 
but  by  those  who  have  left  school  and  gone  to  work.  A 
New  York  business  man  who  employs  many  boys  and 
young  men  says  that  when  he  has  to  hire  a  new  boy, 
he  always  looks  for  one  brought  up  in  the  country.  One 
of  the  reasons  that  he  gives  is  that  the  country  boy  is 
apt  to  be  healthier,  and  therefore  more  valuable  for  busi- 
ness purposes  than  a  city  boy.  He  has  eaten  hearty, 
nourishing  food,  and  has  had  plenty  of  fresh  air  and  exer- 
cise. He  hasn't  formed  the  bad  habit  of  spending  money 
for  sodas  and  cigarettes.  The  business  man  knows  that 
the  boy  who  smokes  and  has  the  soda  habit  is  wasting 
both  money  and  health.  And  no  young  person  can  hope 
to  be  successful  without  good  health. 

A  large  department  store  in  New  York  City  has  had 
so  many  absences  from  work  that  the  managers  have 
been  studying  to  see  what  the  matter  was.  Since  the 
store  employs  several  hundred  girls  and  young  women, 
it  was  losing  money  by  the  frequent  absences,  and  of 
course  the  girls  were  also  losing  money.  The  managers 
decided  that  many  girls  did  not  know  how  to  keep  well, 
and  also  did  not  realize  the  value  of  keeping  well.  They 
therefore  fitted  up  in  the  store  a  splendid  gymnasium, 
with  spray  baths  and  a  lounging-room.  Now  each  girl 
has  to  be  examined  by  the  gymnasium  director,  and  to 
spend  a  certain  amount  of  time  each  day  doing  gym- 


16  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

nastic  exercises.  It  costs  this  store  several  thousand 
dollars  each  year  to  help  care  for  the  health  of  its  girl 
employees.  But  it  is  cheaper  to  do  this  than  to  have 
the  girls  absent  every  few  days. 

Sickness  is  always  expensive  for  somebody — the  school, 
the  store,  or  the  home.    It  pays  to  keep  well. 


Ill 

THE  SAVINGS-BANK 

William  Hayes  had  an  aunt  who  every  year  sent  him 
five  dollars  for  Christmas.  The  year  that  William  was 
twelve  he  was  especially  eager  for  Christmas  to  come, 
because  he  wanted  an  Indian  blanket  for  his  room,  and 
a  punching-bag  for  the  little  gymnasium  that  he  had  in 
the  attic.  The  expected  letter  came  and  was  kept  un- 
opened until  Christmas  morning.  But  it  was  with  a 
very  sober  face  that  William  handed  the  letter  to  his 
mother  after  he  had  read  it. 

"Dear  William/'  the  letter  began,  "you  are  now  old 
enough  to  start  a  bank  account,  and  I  am  therefore  send- 
ing you  a  check  for  five  dollars  for  you  to  put  into  a 
savings-bank.  It  is  not  to  be  spent  now.  I  hope  that 
you  will  add  to  it  as  often  as  possible,  so  that  when  you 
are  through  the  high  school  you  will  have  a  tidy  little 
sum  to  help  you  to  go  to  college,  or  to  get  a  start  in 
some  business.  Many  a  man  owes  his  success  to  the 
few  dollars  that  he  had  saved  to  help  him  when  through 
school.' ' 

17 


18  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"Well,  I  call  that  pretty  mean!"  said  William.  He 
almost  wanted  to  cry,  he  was  so  disappointed. 

"If  Aunt  Mary  had  ever  been  a  boy  she  would  have 
known  better  than  that,"  he  grumbled. 

"Come,  come,"  said  his  father.  "You're  only  show- 
ing how  silly  and  ignorant  you  are  by  such  remarks. 
Of  course,  you  ought  to  start  a  bank  account  right  away. 
How  much  money  of  your  own  have  you?" 

"Only  a  dollar,  and  I  shall  need  that  toward  a  punch- 
ing-bag,  so  long  as  I  can't  spend  Aunt  Mary's  money." 

Mr.  Hayes  seemed  not  to  hear  the  last  part  of  Wil- 
liam's remark,  and  said:  "Since  you  don't  have  to  go 
to  school  tomorrow,  you  can  bring  the  six  dollars  down 
to  my  office  at  eleven  o'clock,  and  I  will  take  you  to 
lunch.     Then  we  will  go  to  the  bank." 

William's  face  lighted  up,  for  of  all  the  things  that  he 
liked  best,  lunching  with  his  father  stood  at  the  head  of 
the  list. 

Just  then  his  sister  Miriam,  three  years  younger  than 
he,  interrupted  with:  "Let  me  see  your  money  from 
Aunt  Mary." 

"That!"  she  said  in  disgust,  as  William  handed  her 
the  check.     "Why,  that's  only  a  piece  of  paper." 

"It  stands  for  money,  nevertheless,"  said  the  boy. 
"Father  can  take  this  to  the  bank,  and  they  will  give 
him  a  five-dollar  bill  for  it." 


THE  SAVINGS-BANK  19 

"Isn't  that  queer?"     And  Miriam  carefully  read  aloud 
what  was  printed  and  written  on  the  paper. 


$5.00  New  York,  Dec.  21,  1914. 

THE  FIRST  NATIONAL  BANK 

Pay  to  the  order  of  William  Hayes 

Five Dollars 

No.  62  Mary  H.  Allen. 


"We  don't  live  in  New  York/'  said  Miriam.  "How 
can  a  bank  in  New  York  pay  you  the  money  unless  you 
are  there?" 

William  looked  quite  important  as  he  explained  what 
he  had  just  learned  about  checks  in  school. 

"You  see,  Aunt  Mary  keeps  some  of  her  money  in 
this  New  York  bank,  and  wrhen  she  wants  to  pay  a  bill 
or  give  a  present  of  money,  she  writes  out  this  kind  of 
order.  Father  can  take  this  to  any  bank  where  they 
know  him;  and  get  it  turned  into  money.  The  bank 
that  pays  the  money  to  father  will  collect  the  same 
amount  from  the  New  York  bank  where  Aunt  Mary's 
money  is." 

Miriam  looked  as  if  she  didn't  quite  understand,  but 
asked  no  further  questions. 

The  next  day  William  blacked  his  shoes  and  cleaned 


20  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

his  finger-nails  without  being  reminded  to  do  so  by  his 
mother.  He  wanted  to  look  his  best,  for  the  restaurant 
where  his  father  always  took  him  seemed  pretty  fine, 
and  the  men  who  talked  with  his  father  looked  big  and 
important. 

As  he  ate  he  listened  to  the  conversation  of  the  men. 
It  interested  him,  even  if  he  couldn't  understand  it  all. 

"If  we  can  get  the  Merchants  Bank  to  let  us  have 
five  thousand  dollars  by  Friday,"  said  one  of  the  men, 
"we  can  put  this  deal  through." 

"Money  is  so  tight,"  said  another  man,  "that  the 
banks  are  only  making  short-time  loans,  but  I  suppose 
you  don't  need  this  for  more  than  two  months." 

It  was  the  Merchants  Bank  in  which  William  was 
going  to  deposit  his  money,  and  he  was  all  attention; 
but  just  then  his  father  said  that  if  they  expected  to  get 
to  the  bank  before  it  closed  they  would  have  to  be  going. 

"Father,"  said  William,  "those  must  be  very  rich 
men  to  talk  of  borrowing  five  thousand  dollars." 

"No,  my  son,"  replied  Mr.  Hayes.  "They  are  sim- 
ply keen  business  men." 

"I  guess  I  should  like  to  be  a  business  man.  Do  you 
suppose  I  can?" 

"I  hope  so,"  said  the  father.  "That's  why  I  am 
having  you  start  your  bank  account  today.  To  become 
a  good  business  man  you  must  know  how  to  save  money, 


THE  SAVINGS-BANK  21 

how  to  invest  money,  and  how  to  spend  money.  Today 
I  am  showing  you  one  way  to  invest  your  six  dollars. 
The  bank  will  pay  you  four  cents  a  year  for  every  dollar 
that  you  put  into  it.  This  means  that  your  six  dollars 
will  earn  twenty-four  cents  a  year.  This  is  investing 
your  money.  But,  of  course,  you  can't  invest  money 
until  you  have  saved  or  earned  it." 

They  entered  a  large  granite  building  which  had  mar- 
ble floors  and  rich  furnishings. 

William  was  awed  by  the  grandeur  of  the  place  and 
by  the  sight  of  so  many  earnest-looking  men.  He 
began  to  feel  quite  important,  for  he  had  already  made 
up  his  mind  that  he  should  be  a  business  man  just  as 
soon  as  he  was  old  enough. 

They  had  to  stand  in  line,  for  there  were  men,  women, 
boys,  and  even  girls,  waiting  their  turn. 

"What  are  we  waiting  for?"  asked  William  impa- 
tiently. 

"Why,"  answered  his  father,  "there  are  twenty  peo- 
ple ahead  of  us  who  have  brought  money  to  leave  here." 

"Whew!"  exclaimed  William  under  his  breath. 

Just  then  a  plainly  dressed  woman  who  stood  in  front 
of  William  turned  around,  and  he  was  surprised  to  hear 
his  father  say:     "How  do  you  do,  Mrs.  O'Brien." 

"I  wonder  who  she  is,"  thought  William.  "She 
doesn't  look  as  if  she  had  any  money."     But  when  they 


22  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

reached  the  window  he  noticed  that  she  gave  the  clerk 
ten  dollars. 

"Who  was  that  woman,  father?" 

"She  is  the  dust-woman  at  our  office.  She  doesn't 
earn  much,  but  she  is  sensible  and  thrifty.  Half  the 
people  who  put  money  in  the  savings-banks  are  poor 
people.     They  are  often  wiser  than  the  rich." 

When  it  came  William's  turn  to  stand  at  the  window, 
Mr.  Hayes  said:  "Tins  is  my  son  William,  Mr.  Parker. 
He's  starting  in  today  to  be  a  business  man.  He  has 
six  dollars  for  you." 

When  he  left  home  William  had  intended  to  keep  the 
dollar,  and  put  in  only  the  five  that  his  aunt  had  sent, 
but  he  had  now  decided  that  every  cent  he  could  get 
should  go  into  the  bank.  So  he  handed  the  teller  the 
check  and  ten  ten-cent  pieces. 

He  had  already  written  his  name  in  ink  on  the  back 
of  the  check  to  show  that  it  had  passed  through  his 
hands.  No  bank  will  give  money  for  a  check  that  does 
not  have  on  it  the  signature  of  the  person  whose  name 
appears  after  the  words  "Pay  to  the  order  of." 

"Mr.  Parker,  I  wish  you  would  tell  William  about 
how  much  money  you  handle  in  here." 

"It  varies,  of  course,"  said  Mr.  Parker.  "Day  before 
yesterday  we  took  in  about  thirty  thousand  dollars." 
At  this  William  started. 


THE  SAVINGS-BANK  23 

"And  what  do  you  do  with  the  money?" 

"We  always  keep  a  large  amount  here  so  that  we  can 
pay  back  money  to  those  who  want  to  take  it  out  again. 
The  rest  we  lend  to  business  men  and  others.  Day 
before  yesterday  we  lent  about  ten  thousand  dollars. 
The  men  who  borrow  from  us  pay  at  least  six  per  cent 
interest." 

"So  you  see,  William/'  said  his  father,  "the  bank  earns 
six  cents  for  each  of  your  dollars,  so  that  it  can  pay  you 
four  cents.     The  other  two  cents  go  for  expenses.'3 

"Perhaps  those  men  at  the  restaurant  will  get  my  six 
dollars,"  said  William. 

"Perhaps  so,  but  the  book  that  Mr.  Parker  has  given 
you  shows  that  you  have  opened  a  savings  account 
with  the  bank,  and  at  any  time  you  can  demand  a  part 
or  all  of  your  six  dollars.  This  is  your  deposit,  or  pass- 
book. When  you  get  older  and  have  more  money, 
you  will  want  to  start  what  they  call  a  '  commercial 
account,'  and  have  a  check-book.  Your  commercial 
account  would  draw  little  or  no  interest,  however,  and 
would  be  useful  only  in  paying  bills  by  means  of  checks. 
But  every  business  man  must  have  such  an  account, 
for  it  would  take  too  much  of  his  time  to  pay  everybody 
in  money." 

That  night  William  was  telling  his  mother  about  Mrs. 
O'Brien,  the  dust-woman. 


24  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"What  you  say  reminds  me  of  my  wash-woman," 
said  his  mother.  "One  day  she  came  here  earlier  than 
usual,  and  said  she  must  leave  by  twelve  o'clock.  I 
asked  her  why,  and  she  told  me  she  wanted  to  reach  the 
bank  before  it  closed.  I  supposed,  of  course,  she  in- 
tended to  draw  out  some  of  her  hard-earned  savings. 
But  I  was  wrong." 

"I  have  three  bank  books,"  she  said  proudly.  "I 
own  my  house,  though  a  poor  enough  thing  it  is,  and  it's 
almost  two  thousand  dollars  that  I  have  in  the  bank." 

"I  told  her,"  said  Mrs.  Hayes,  "that  I  was  proud  to 
have  such  a  wash- woman,  and  I  am." 

Mr.  Hayes  was  right  in  making  William  start  a  sav- 
ings account.  Just  to  feel  that  he  had  a  few  dollars 
invested  in  a  great  bank  made  him  much  more  thought- 
ful about  how  he  spent  his  money.  Often  when  he  was 
tempted  to  spend  ten  cents  for  soda  for  himself  and  his 
chum,  he  would  think:  "No,  it  only  takes  ten  tens  to 
make  a  dollar,  and  I  can  put  the  dollar  in  the  bank  where 
it  will  earn  four  cents." 

One  day  as  a  business  man  entered  his  bank  he  passed 
a  foreigner  who  looked  so  out  of  place  there  that  he 
asked  the  teller  who  he  was. 

"Why,  he's  one  of  our  largest  depositors,"  replied  the 
teller. 


THE  SAVINGS-BANK  25 

"What's  the  joke?"  asked  the  man. 

"There's  no  joke  at  all,"  said  the  teller.  "He  works 
in  the  tannery,  and  earns  three  dollars  a  day.  He  evi- 
dently lives  on  ten  dollars  a  week,  for  he  puts  an  average 
of  eight  dollars  a  week  in  the  bank.  He  has  five  of  the 
brightest-eyed  children  you  ever  saw.  They  don't  look 
starved,  either." 

The  business  man  looked  puzzled.  "But  what  is  he 
saving  his  money  for?  Why  doesn't  he  spend  all  that 
he  earns  and  get  some  enjoyment  out  of  life?  I  don't 
believe  in  poor  people  scrimping  along  like  that." 

"We  bank  men  can't  agree  with  you.  If  it  were  not 
for  the  savings  of  people  like  this,  we  shouldn't  have 
money  to  lend  to  men  with  which  to  carry  on  their  busi- 
ness. Then,  too,  these  poor  folks  have  the  greatest  en- 
joyment in  saving.  Wasn't  that  man's  face  beaming 
when  he  went  out?  It's  a  real  pleasure  to  me  to  have 
him  come  in.  But,"  he  added  as  he  turned  back  to  his 
desk,  "he  won't  always  be  poor." 

It  was  perhaps  six  months  after  this  that  the  same 
business  man  noticed  a  new  fruit-stand  at  the  corner 
near  which  he  had  his  shoes  shined.  He  stopped  to  buy 
an  orange,  and  to  his  astonishment  looked  into  the 
same  beaming  face  that  he  had  seen  at  the  bank. 

"Well,  well,  Tony!"  he  exclaimed.  "What  does  this 
mean?    I  thought  you  worked  in  the  tannery?" 


26  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"I  work  now  for  myself/ '  he  said. 

The  man  stepped  into  the  bank  and  accosted  the  teller 
with:  "Your  smiling  friend  has  just  started  out  in  the 
fruit  business,  I  see." 

"Yes/'  said  the  teller;  "he  has  drawn  out  all  his 
money  except  fifty  dollars.  He'll  be  a  rich  man  yet, 
perhaps.  You  know  that  valuable  piece  of  land  at  the 
end  of  your  street?  The  Italian  who  has  had  the  fruit 
stand  on  Market  Street  for  years  has  just  bought  that 
lot." 

"I  wonder  how  they  do  it?  I  can't  seem  to  get 
money  enough  to  buy  any  land." 

The  teller  looked  very  wise  as  he  said:  "You  and  I 
and  many  other  people  who  are  earning  good  salaries 
might  learn  a  lesson  from  these  foreigners  who  can't 
speak  good  English  yet." 

One  day  in  a  large  city  where  many  foreigners  live, 
Esther  Rubin  went  to  her  teacher  with  sixty  cents  in 
pennies,  and  asked  if  she  would  keep  it  for  her. 

"I  earned  it/'  she  said  proudly.  "But  we  keep  many 
lodgers  at  my  house,  and  perhaps  they  will  steal  it." 

Miss  Emerson  was  puzzled  at  first  to  know  what  was 
best  to  do.  Finally,  she  went  to  the  principal,  and  asked 
if  she  could  start  a  school  savings-bank  in  her  room. 
"A  good  many  schools  are  doing  this  now,"  she  said. 


THE  SAVINGS-BANK  27 

"That's  a  splendid  idea/'  agreed  the  principal,  "and 
I  think  we  should  plan  to  have  a  school  bank  for  all  the 
rooms." 

The  result  was  that  a  school  savings-bank  was  started 
at  once,  and  Esther  Rubin's  sixty  pennies  was  the  first 
deposit  made  in  it.  On  the  first  banking  day  almost 
ten  dollars  wras  paid  in  by  Miss  Emerson's  room.  Each 
pupil  received  a  deposit  card,  showing  the  date  and  the 
amount  of  money  deposited.  If  a  girl  wanted  to  draw 
money  out,  she  had  to  write  on  a  slip  of  paper  how  much 
she  wanted,  and  what  it  was  to  be  spent  for.  She  then 
handed  this  with  her  card  to  the  teacher. 

One  day  Miss  Emerson  found  on  her  desk  Ruth 
Clark's  deposit  card,  with  this  slip: 


n 


I  should  please  like  to  draw  out  twenty  cents  so 


that  I  can  go  to  the  movies." 


"Why,  Ruth,"  said  Miss  Emerson,  "I  thought  it  only 
cost  ten  cents  for  a  seat  at  the  moving-picture  show." 

Ruth  looked  a  little  embarrassed  as  she  explained: 
"But  I  want  to  go  again  tomorrow  night." 

"Two  nights  running?  I  didn't  know  that  they  had 
new  pictures  every  night." 

"They  don't,"  said  Ruth,  "but  I  think  it's  fun  to  go 
even  if  I  have  seen  the  pictures  before." 


28  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

Miss  Emerson  looked  so  astonished  that  Ruth  began 
to  feel  queer. 

"You  may  all  give  me  your  attention  for  a  few  min- 
utes/' Miss  Emerson  said  to  the  class.  "I  want  to  tell 
you  about  a  woman  that  I  know  who  has  spoiled  her 
home  by  what  I  call  the  moving-picture  habit.  She 
goes  at  least  five  nights  every  week.  Sometimes  she  sees 
the  same  pictures  two  or  three  times,  but  she  doesn't 
seem  to  care.  She  used  to  be  a  bright  little  woman  and 
had  a  cheerful  home.  But  now  you  would  hardly  know 
her.  She  is  fretful,  pale,  and  discontented.  She  sees  so 
many  pictures  of  homes  that  are  much  more  beautiful 
than  hers,  and  of  women  who  have  fine  clothes,  that  she 
is  always  complaining  because  she  has  so  little.  She 
doesn't  keep  her  house  tidy,  as  she  once  did. 

"Any  person  who  goes  to  a  moving-picture  show  as 
often  as  this  woman  does  is  spending  money  and  time 
and  health  foolishly.  To  spend  two  hours  every  night 
in  the  hot,  close  air  of  a  moving-picture  theatre  is  bad 
for  anybody. 

"Now,"  continued  Miss  Emerson,  "how  many  of  you 
are  willing  to  promise  me  not  to  go  to  one  of  these  enter- 
tainments oftener  than  once  a  week?" 

Everybody  promised,  and  perhaps  this  was  the  reason 
that  on  the  next  school  banking  day  twenty  dollars  was 
added  to  the  deposits  already  made. 


IV 
THE  "MAKING-OVER"  CLUB 

Mr.  Sanborn  had  looked  very  grave  when  he  came 
home  to  supper,  hot  and  tired,  the  first  night  of  June. 
And  after  supper,  when  Ellen  and  Herbert  went  out  in 
the  back  yard  to  play  a  game,  he  quietly  handed  his  wife 
a  letter.  This  was  from  the  company  for  which  Mr. 
Sanborn  worked,  and  said  that,  while  they  regretted 
having  to  do  it,  they  had  decided  to  run  the  shop  on 
half-time  for  the  next  three  months,  and  perhaps  longer. 
Times  were  dull  everywhere,  and  the  iron  shop  was  only 
one  of  many  concerns  that  found  it  difficult  to  keep 
going. 

"Never  mind,  John,"  said  Mrs.  Sanborn  to  her  hus- 
band. "The  children  and  I  will  help  you.  As  long  as 
we  can  pay  the  rent  and  get  a  little  something  to  eat 
we  shall  be  all  right.  There  are  plenty  of  ways  of  saving 
money,  even  when  there  isn't  much  coming  in." 

The  next  morning  after  breakfast,  while  Ellen  was 
washing  dishes  and  Herbert  was  drying  them,  Mrs.  San- 
bom  explained  about  their  father's  bad  news. 

29 


30  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"Now  I  have  a  plan  to  propose,"  said  Mrs.  Sanborn 
cheerfully.  "This  will  have  to  be  a  *  making-over '  year. 
There  can  be  no  new  clothes,  no  new  shoes  unless  abso- 
lutely necessary,  no  new  furniture.  I  know  that  we  can 
do  this  for  father,  and  I  want  you  both  to  think  up  all 
the  ways  in  which  we  can  help  him." 

"Does  that  mean  that  I'll  have  to  hire  out  as  an  er- 
rand boy  this  summer?"  asked  Herbert. 

Ellen  looked  puzzled  and  troubled.  "Oh,  mother,  I 
wanted  a  new  party  dress  this  year.  Mine  is  faded  and 
dreadfully  old-fashioned.  Can't  I  have  just  one  new 
dress?" 

Her  mother  only  said:  "That  is  something  you  must 
think  over  a  little  longer.  What  I  want  to  know  now  is, 
will  you  and  Herbert  help  father  out?  I  am  going  to 
appoint  you  both  a  Committee  on  '  Making  Over.'  I 
want  you  to  put  on  your  thinking  caps,  and  next  Satur- 
day we  will  have  a  report." 

"That  won't  be  half  bad,  will  it,  Helen?"  exclaimed 
Herbert.  "But  I  know  I  can  think  of  more  ways  of 
saving  than  you  can.  Girls'  heads  are  always  full  of 
plans  about  dresses  and  pianos  and  such  things.". 

"Is  that  so?"  said  Ellen  with  some  indignation. 

Ellen  promised  herself  that  she  would  be  just  as  brave 
and  helpful  as  Herbert,  but  she  did  want  a  new  party 
dress.    And  she  had  hoped  and  hoped  for  a  piano,  so 


THE  "MAKING-OVER"   CLUB  31 

that  she  could  take  music  lessons  as  Ella  Ward  and  Mary 
Perkins  and  all  the  other  girls  did. 

Monday  night  after  school,  Mrs.  Sanborn  said:  "I 
think  it  would  help  you  in  your  reports  if  you  should 
take  paper  and  pencil,  and  make  a  careful  inspection  of 
the  house.  Ellen,  why  don't  you  spend  an  hour  in  the 
attic  looking  over  the  boxes  of  old  hats  and  dresses  and 
pieces?  Herbert  can  inspect  the  cellar  and  the  shed. 
I'm  not  going  to  make  any  more  suggestions.  Just  use 
your  eyes  and  your  wits." 

When  supper  was  ready  Mrs.  Sanborn  had  to  call 
several  times  before  she  got  any  response  from  Ellen. 
At  length  she  came  down  with  rumpled  hair  and  dusty 
face,  looking  quite  excited. 

"I  shan't  tell  anything,  so  you  needn't  ask,"  she  said 
as  she  looked  at  Herbert. 

"Nobody's  going  to.  I've  got  enough  on  my  mind 
as  it  is,"  replied  her  brother. 

Mr.  Sanborn  laughed  at  the  signs  of  excitement  on 
the  two  children's  faces.  "What's  this  all  about?"  he 
asked. 

"It's  a  secret!"  Ellen  and  Herbert  said,  at  the  same 
time. 

It  was  difficult  to  get  Ellen  to  bed  that  night;  when 
she  wasn't  making  trips  up  to  the  attic  she  was  figuring 
or  making  sketches  on  paper.     She  not  only  explored 


32  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

the  attic,  but  got  her  mother's  permission  to  go  through 
all  the  clothes  closets. 

When  Saturday  came  both  Herbert  and  Ellen  wanted 
to  make  their  report  immediately  after  breakfast,  but 
Mrs.  Sanborn  said:   " Dishes  first !" 

Just  as  the  clock  struck  ten  the  committee  seated 
themselves  at  the  kitchen  table,  where  Mrs.  Sanborn 
was  kneading  bread. 

"Let  Ellen  make  her  report  first/'  suggested  Herbert. 
"If  you  don't,  she  won't  listen  to  a  word  of  mine." 

Ellen  was  too  much  in  earnest  even  to  reply  to  her 
brother's  good-natured  taunt.  This  is  what  she  read 
from  her  paper: 

I  have  examined  one  attic  and  three  clothes 
closets.  I  have  found  twenty-one  things  that  can 
be  made  over  or  used  in  such  a  way  as  to  save  father 
money.     These  are  the  things: 

Three  Pairs  of  Shoes.  One  pair  needs  new  heels 
and  ought  to  be  thoroughly  blacked,  and  then  I  can 
wear  them  to  school.  Another  pair  are  men's  shoes 
and  might  do  for  father  to  wear  to  work  on  rainy 
days  to  save  his  good  ones.  The  other  pair  may 
fit  Herbert;  if  they  don't,  perhaps  the  shoemaker 
would  take  them  in  payment  for  putting  new  heels 
onto  the  shoes  that  I  can  wear. 


THE   "MAKING-OVER"   CLUB  33 

Old  Dotted-Muslin  Curtains.  These  are  long  cur- 
tains, but  the  tops  are  torn  and  stained.  When  the 
tops  are  cut  off,  there  will  be  enough  good  muslin 
left  to  make  either  a  thin  waist  for  me,  or  sash 
curtains  for  the  dining-room. 

Three  Old  Striped  Shirts  of  Father's.  They  are 
torn  out  around  the  neck,  and  the  buttons  are  miss- 
ing, but  I  think  mother  could  make  them  over  for 
Herbert. 

Three  White  Cotton  Skirts.  These  could  be  made 
over  into  petticoats  for  mother  and  me.  I  found  a 
lot  of  embroidery  in  a  pasteboard  box,  and  we  could 
use  some  of  this  for  trimming. 

Almost  Three  Yards  of  Wide  Sash  Ribbon.  This 
is  blue  with  pink  roses.  It  is  badly  mussed,  but  it 
can  be  washed  and  ironed,  and  will  look  almost  as 
good  as  new. 

Here  Herbert  pounded  the  floor  in  applause. 

"Good  work !"  he  said.  "I  don't  believe  you  thought 
that  up  yourself." 

"Will  the  meeting  come  to  order  at  once?"  said  Mrs. 
Sanborn. 

"Surely,"  said  Herbert.  "Go  ahead,  but  wait  until 
you  hear  me." 

"Well,"  said  Ellen,  "it  is  just  because  of  this  ribbon 


34  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

that  I  shall  not  have  to  buy  a  new  party  dress.  I  am 
going  to  help  mother  dye  my  white  muslin  blue,  and  then 
make  this  blue  and  pink  ribbon  into  a  butterfly  sash  to 
wear  at  the  back." 

Herbert  gave  a  low  whistle,  but  made  no  other  com- 
ment, and  Ellen  continued: 

Two  Summer  Hats  and  One  Winter  Hat.  Besides 
these  there  are  different  flowers  and  pieces  of  velvet 
ribbon,  and  probably  some  of  these  could  be  used 
for  trimming  over. 

An  Old  Table-Cloth.  This  has  a  pretty  vine  pat- 
tern, and  could  be  made  into  a  square  lunch-cloth. 
There  would  have  to  be  a  seam  right  through  the 
middle,  but  that  ought  not  to  bother  us. 

Two  Partly  Worn-out  Sheets.  When  any  of  our 
pillow  slips  wear  out,  we  can  make  new  ones  out 
of  these. 

An  Old  Winter  Coat  of  Father7 s,  and  Two  Woollen 
Dresses  that  Were  Mother's.  I  don't  know  just 
what  could  be  done  with  these.  Perhaps  mother 
will  suggest  something  later. 

Just  here  Herbert  groaned.  "I  suppose  I  am  in  for  a 
made-over  winter  coat.  All  I  ask  is  that  Ellen  also  have 
a  made-over  dress." 


THE   "MAKING-OVER"   CLUB  35 

"Well/'  said  Ellen,  "I've  already  made  up  my  mind 
not  to  wear  anything  for  a  whole  year  that  isn't  made 
over.  Esther  Hapgood  and  I  are  going  to  see  which  can 
go  the  longer  without  having  anything  new." 

"Well,  I  never!"  exclaimed  Herbert.  "I  suppose  you 
will  have  a  ' Making-Over'  Club  the  next  thing." 

"That  wouldn't  be  a  bad  idea,"  said  Mrs.  Sanborn. 
"Esther's  father  has  been  laid  off  on  half-time,  and  I'm 
sure  they  are  as  poor  as  we — but  finish  your  report, 
Ellen." 

Two  Big  Packing-Boxes  Full  of  Pieces.  These 
ought  to  be  sorted  out,  some  of  them  sold  to  the 
ragman,  and  the  rest  kept  for  use  in  mending  or 
making  guimpes. 

A  Big  Lamp  with  a  Green-Paper  Shade.  Mary 
Cummings  has  lamps  in  her  house.  She  says  her 
mother  thinks  they  are  prettier  than  gaslights,  and, 
anyway,  oil  is  cheaper  than  gas.  Why  couldn't  we 
use  this  in  the  sitting-room  and  save  the  gas? 

"Wouldn't  save  enough  to  pay,"  said  Herbert. 

"I'm  not  so  sure,"  said  Mrs.  Sanborn.  "We  will 
look  into  that.  You  have  certainly  made  a  good  report, 
Ellen.  Every  ten  cents  that  we  can  save  will  be  a  help, 
for  ten  cents  will  buy  two  pounds  of  sugar,  and  two 
pounds  of  sugar  can  be  made  to  last  us  a  week." 


36  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

When  Herbert's  turn  came  at  last,  he  rose  with  mock 
ceremony,  bowed  to  his  mother  and  Ellen,  and  said: 

My  report  is  short  and  very  important.  I  have 
examined  the  woodshed  and  the  cellar,  and  this  is 
what  I  find: 

In  the  cellar  there  is  a  lot  of  stuff  that  could  be 
sold  for  old  junk.  I  have  put  all  this  in  the  corner 
nearest  the  door,  and  this  afternoon  I  am  going  to 
ask  a  junk-dealer  to  look  at  it  and  make  us  an  offer. 

There  are  some  packing-cases,  soap-boxes,  etc., 
which  could  be  chopped  up  for  kindling-wood. 
This  would  probably  last  us  all  summer,  and  save 
buying  until  fall.     I  will  do  the  chopping. 

I  don't  know  how  this  next  idea  will  strike  mother, 
but  I  think  we  could  get  along  without  ice  this  sum- 
mer. You  see  the  east  corner  of  the  house  is  built 
right  into  a  bank,  and  the  same  corner  of  the  cellar 
is  almost  as  cold  as  an  ice-chest.  We  could  rig  up 
some  boxes  in  this  corner  to  keep  the  milk  and  but- 
ter and  such  things  in.  Of  course,  this  would  mean 
extra  going  up  and  down  stairs,  but  we  can  all  help. 

Herbert  looked  pointedly  at  Ellen,  and  continued : 

At  the  back  of  the  shed  I  found  a  lot  of  cans  of 
paint  and  some  papers  of  seeds.     I  don't  know  what 


THE   "  MAKING-OVER "   CLUB  37 

we  can  do  with  the  paint,  but  I  have  a  scheme  for 
using  the  seeds.  The  other  day  in  school  the  prin- 
cipal told  us  how  thrifty  the  German  people  are. 
Many  of  them  plant  their  whole  yard  to  vegetables. 
And  even  if  they  have  only  a  little  strip  at  the  side 
and  back  as  we  have,  they  make  it  into  a  garden. 

At  recess  I  asked  the  principal  if  he  thought  I 
could  make  any  money  out  of  a  garden  in  our  yard. 
He  told  me  to  dig  down  under  the  turf  and  bring  him 
a  sample  of  the  soil.  I  carried  him  some  of  the  soil, 
and  he  had  it  tested  to  see  if  it  was  rich  enough  to 
grow  vegetables  without  fertilizer.  He  said  it  was, 
and  if  I  would  start  in  at  once  to  dig  up  and  plant, 
he  thought  I  could  have  a  good  garden  this  year. 

" Isn't  it  rather  late  to  start  a  garden?"  asked  Mrs. 
Sanborn. 

"Not  if  I  plant  the  right  things,  the  principal  said. 
Lettuce,  winter  carrots,  and  tomato-plants  can  be  planted 
now." 

"I  shall  miss  the  green-grass  yard,"  said  Mrs.  San- 
born with  a  sigh,  "but  I  think  your  idea  is  a  good  one. 
Do  you  realize  how  much  hard  work  it  will  mean,  Her- 
bert?" 

"Yes,  and  Henry  Wilkins  and  Bob  Marshall  are  going 
to  help  me.     You  see,  I  shall  help  them,  too." 


38  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"  Oh,  ho ! "  said  Ellen.  "  So  you're  forming  a  '  Making- 
Over'  Club,  too,  are  you?  We  girls  are  going  to  make 
over  clothes,  and  you  will  make  over  yards.  What  a 
scheme!" 

Just  then  a  knock  at  the  kitchen  door  startled  them 
all.  Mrs.  Sanborn  opened  it,  and  who  should  stand 
there  but  Mr.  Green,  the  principal  of  the  school  that 
Herbert  and  Ellen  attended! 

"I  came  to  talk  with  Herbert  about  his  garden,"  he 
said  with  a  smile. 

"That  is  very  good  of  you,"  said  Mrs.  Sanborn  cor- 
dially. "Come  right  in.  Ellen  and  Herbert  are  my 
Committee  on  Making  Over,  and  they  have  just  made 
their  reports.  You  see,  my  husband  is  only  working 
half-time  now,  and  we  must  economize  in  every  way 
possible."  Mrs.  Sanborn  went  on  to  explain  about 
the  reports,  and  the  principal  became  greatly  inter- 
ested. 

"You  have  given  me  an  idea,"  he  said.  "Hard  times 
have  affected  a  lot  of  people  this  year,  especially  the 
families  of  our  school.  I  think  it  would  be  a  good  thing 
if  we  could  organize  a  school  'Making-Over'  Club.  If 
I  invite  all  the  parents  of  our  pupils  to  come  to  the 
school  next  Friday  afternoon,  will  you  come?  And  will 
you  let  me  tell  them  about  your  plan?" 

Mrs.  Sanborn  assented,  and  as  Mr.  Green  and  Her- 


THE   " MAKING-OVER"   CLUB  39 

bert  went  out  to  look  over  the  yard,  Ellen  danced  up 
and  down  with  excitement. 

"Keep  your  thinking  cap  on,  Ellen,"  said  her  mother, 
"and  perhaps  you  will  have  some  more  helpful  sugges- 
tions that  we  can  give  to  Mr.  Green." 


V 

THE  "MAKING-OVER"  CLUB 

(Continued) 

Before  Friday  came  Mr.  Green  had  called  on  Mrs. 
Sanborn  several  times  to  talk  over  plans.  Tired  and 
somewhat  discouraged  though  he  was,  Mr.  Sanborn  be- 
came greatly  interested  also. 

"Seems  almost  like  celebrating  some  good  news/'  he 
said.  "You  wouldn't  think  to  see  the  goings  on  that 
my  pay  envelope  was  to  be  cut  in  two,  would  you?" 

"No,"  his  wife  answered  thoughtfully;  "but,  as  Mr. 
Green  said,  I  believe  that  we  can  have  a  good  time  all 
summer  long,  and  the  children  will  learn  many  valuable 
lessons  that  might  never  be  taught  them  in  school." 

"Perhaps  you  are  right.  At  the  shop  today  John 
Estabrook  was  saying  that  being  poor  might  be  just 
what  our  children  needed  to  make  them  ambitious. 
Almost  every  successful  man  in  this  country  was  once 
a  poor  boy,  and  had  to  make  his  way  himself."  Mr. 
Sanborn  was  silent  a  minute. 

"Why,  look  at  Joel  Hammond,  who  lives  up  on  Fair- 
view   Hill,"    he    continued.     "His   mother   was    doing 

40 


THE   " MAKING-OVER"   CLUB  41 

washings  twenty  years  ago.  He  had  to  leave  school  and 
get  to  work  when  he  was  fourteen.  I  don't  know  just 
what  he  did  at  first,  but  for  a  time  he  was  earning  six 
dollars  a  week  in  an  automobile  repair-shop,  helping 
wash  machines  and  doing  odd  jobs.  He  got  interested, 
used  to  study  nights,  and  after  a  while  they  let  him  run 
a  car. 

'Then  he  was  chauffeur  for  a  year  or  two,  but  he 
liked  best  to  fuss  over  the  insides  of  the  cars,  so  he  took 
a  repairer's  job,  and  by  the  time  he  was  twenty  was  earn- 
ing twenty-five  dollars  a  week.  They  say  he  could  take 
any  car  to  pieces  and  put  it  together  again.  He  was 
always  staying  around  at  night  long  after  the  other  men 
had  gone  home,  and  one  day  he  invented  some  part  or 
other,  and  that  is  how  he  became  rich.  Herbert  may 
be  a  rich  man  yet,  and  take  us  sightseeing  in  a  big  auto- 
mobile. How  should  you  like  that?"  And  Mr.  San- 
born turned  to  his  wife  with  a  smile. 

"Very  much,"  answered  his  wife.  "But  I  shall  be 
satisfied  if  our  children  learn  how  to  earn  their  own 
living  and  to  be  wholesome  and  happy.  People  can  be 
happy  if  they  are  not  rich." 

"Hello,  father!"  piped  up  a  voice  from  the  open 
window.  "How  do  you  like  the  looks  of  my  farm? 
You  didn't  think  that  parsnips,  peas,  carrots,  and  po- 
tatoes could  grow  in  your  side  yard,  did  you?" 


42  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"I  certainly  didn't,  but  when  a  boy  of  thirteen  makes 
up  his  mind  to  do  a  thing  he  can  accomplish  wonders. 
I  agree  to  pick  off  all  the  potato-bugs." 

"You're  too  late,  father/'  said  Herbert  regretfully. 
"Mr.  Green  has  organized  all  the  boys  on  these  three 
streets  into  a  i  Home-Garden '  Club.  Each  boy  is  to 
have  a  yard  garden,  and  we  are  going  to  help  each  other. 
The  potato-bug  boy  has  already  been  chosen.  This  boy 
will  work  his  own  garden  mostly,  but  he  will  also  keep 
watch  of  the  potato-vines  in  all  the  gardens." 

"Well,  that  sounds  like  business,"  his  father  remarked, 
"but  even  so,  I  shouldn't  wonder  if  he'd  accept  a  little 
help  on  the  potato-bugs.  You  bring  him  round,  and 
I'll  tell  him  he  can  look  on  me  as  an  assistant.  But  ex- 
plain more  about  this  club.    It  sounds  good." 

"There  isn't  much  to  tell,  except  that  each  boy  is 
responsible  for  his  own  garden.  In  addition,  each  one 
of  us  is  what  Mr.  Green  called  a  specialist  on  some  one 
thing.  Elmer  Harrison  is  to  be  a  specialist  on  potato- 
bugs.  I  am  to  be  one  on  sprays,  and  another  boy  will 
find  out  all  he  can  about  fertilizers.  Frederick  Emery  is 
the  specialist  on  selling.  You  see,  if  I  raise  more  potatoes 
than  we  need  at  home,  I  shall  tell  Frederick,  and  he  will 
see  if  any  of  the  other  boys  want  to  swap  something  with 
me.  If  he  can't  arrange  a  trade  of  that  kind,  then  he 
will  try  to  sell  them  for  me.    I  shan't  have  to  pay  him, 


THE   "MAKING-OVER"   CLUB  43 

because  he  is  doing  this  for  the  good  of  the  club.  I 
help  him  by  looking  at  his  garden  every  little  while  and 
telling  him  when  any  of  his  plants  need  to  be  sprayed 
with  powder  or  liquid.  I  am  finding  out  about  this 
from  the  seed  store,  and  from  a  book  that  we  have  at 
school.  Of  course,  I  can  sell  my  vegetables  myself  if 
I  want  to.  Frederick  is  to  help  out  only  when  we  need 
him." 

"Doesn't  look  as  if  you  would  have  much  time  for 
baseball/'  Mr.  Sanborn  said  mischievously. 

A  little  cloud  passed  over  Herbert's  face.  "Perhaps 
not,"  he  said,  "but  I  guess  we'll  have  great  bunches  of 
muscle  for  football  in  September."  And  Mr.  Sanborn 
agreed. 

"Oh,  I  forgot  to  tell  you  about  watering,"  said  Her- 
bert. "If  we  don't  have  rain  enough  our  gardens  may 
suffer  for  water,  and  only  twro  of  the  boys  have  garden 
hose.  Well,  our  club  is  going  to  rent  these  two  pieces 
of  hose,  and  the  hose  committee,  Evans  and  Wood,  will 
carry  them  around  to  the  different  houses  as  they  are 
needed." 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Sanborn  as  he  turned  away,  "either 
you  are  an  enterprising  lot  of  boys,  or  else  you  have  an 
enterprising  principal." 

"Perhaps  it  is  both,"  the  boy  answered  quickly. 

The  schoolhouse  meeting  on  Friday  was  a  great  sue- 


44  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

cess.  Mr.  Green  explained  about  the  Home-Garden 
Club  that  had  been  formed  on  three  streets,  and  said 
that  he  should  be  glad  to  assist  in  forming  others.  The 
idea  in  every  case  was  to  help  out  the  home  by  grow- 
ing vegetables,  so  that  fewer  things  would  have  to  be 
bought  at  the  stores.  The  vegetables  and  plants  that  he 
recommended  were  lettuce,  beets,  parsnips,  carrots, 
peas,  beans,  and  potatoes.  Of  course,  one  boy  could  not 
grow  all  these,  but  no  garden,  Mr.  Green  said,  was  too 
small  for  at  least  two  vegetables.  He  also  advised  every- 
body to  plant  rhubarb  roots,  and  to  start  a  Concord 
grape-vine,  since  both  of  these  grow  rapidly  and  on 
almost  any  soil. 

Rhubarb  can  be  made  into  many  appetizing  dishes 
and  is  easily  canned  for  winter  use.  Grapes  are  valua- 
ble both  as  a  food  and  as  a  relish.  They  can  be  made 
into  jelly,  or  juice,  or  preserves.  In  any  of  these  forms 
they  can  be  sold  at  good  prices.  The  principal  told  of 
one  girl  who  had  earned  all  the  money  for  her  first  year 
at  college  by  making  and  selling  grape  juice,  grape  jelly, 
and  apple  jelly. 

Mr.  Green  also  explained  about  Mrs.  Sanborn's 
"  making-over "  scheme,  and  urged  everybody  to  try  it. 
He  promised  to  help  any  boy  or  any  mother  in  every 
way  possible. 

"I  am  perfectly  sure,"  he  said,  "that  no  boy  or  girl 


The  idea  in  every  case  was  to  help  out  the  home  by 

growing  vegetables. 


THE   " MAKING-OVER"   CLUB  45 

who  has  really  learned  how  to  work  will  ever  be  very 
poor.  I  should  not  hesitate  to  give  the  highest  rec- 
ommendation to  any  boy  who  this  summer  plants 
and  takes  care  of  his  own  garden,  and  in  the  fall 
has  a  good  crop,  which  he  either  sells  or  stores  for 
Ms  own  use. 

"I  can  say  the  same  thing  about  any  girl  who  learns 
to  cook  and  to  sew,"  continued  the  principal.  "It  is, 
of  course,  necessary  for  you  boys  and  girls  to  learn  all 
that  you  can  of  arithmetic,  history,  and  geography. 
But  if,  in  addition  to  these,  you  do  not  also  learn  how  to 
work,  you  may  not  be  able  to  earn  your  own  living  when 
you  are  out  of  school." 

As  Mr.  Green  said  this,  some  of  the  audience  looked 
ill  at  ease.  Perhaps  the  boys  were  remembering  the 
coal  and  wood  that  they  hated  to  bring  up  from  the  cel- 
lar, and  the  girls  were  thinking  of  the  hot  kitchens  and 
the  dirty  dishes.  Almost  as  if  he  had  read  their  thoughts, 
the  principal  continued : 

"Some  girls  seem  to  think  that  washing  dishes  is  some- 
thing that  anybody  can  do  without  taking  pains.  But 
I'm  going  to  tell  you  what  will  surprise  you.  Last 
September  a  wealthy  woman,  who  has  a  very  beautiful 
house,  came  to  my  office  at  the  school  and  asked  me  to 
recommend  a  girl  to  come  to  her  house  every  evening 
except  Sunday  to  do  the  dinner  dishes.     That  would  be 


46  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

about  an  hour's  work  each  day.  I  told  her  there  were 
at  least  a  dozen  girls  that  I  could  recommend. 

"'Yes/  she  said,  'but  are  you  sure  they  really  know 
how  to  wash  fine  china  and  glass  and  silver?  All  my 
china  is  expensive,  and  only  one  who  is  careful  can  be 
trusted  with  it.  I  have  tried  six  different  girls  this  last 
year.  All  of  them  said  they  could  do  the  work,  but  not 
one  was  satisfactory.' 

"At  first/'  said  Mr.  Green,  "I  could  hardly  believe 
that  any  girl  could  not  wash  dishes  acceptably.  But 
that  night  I  asked  my  wife  about  it,  and  she  agreed  that 
few  girls  knew  how  to  wash  and  wipe  dishes  so  that  they 
were  clean  and  shiny,  and  to  handle  them  without  mak- 
ing nicks  or  cracks.  And  as  for  silver,  it  seems  that 
most  girls  know  very  little  about  keeping  it  bright  and 
clean. 

"Well,  after  a  time  I  did  find  a  girl  who  pleased  the 
woman,  and  now  she  is  earning  two  dollars  a  week  work- 
ing one  hour  a  day  at  dish-washing.  She  not  only  knows 
how  to  wash  the  dishes,  but  she  can  clean  the  dish-pans 
and  the  sink,  and  leave  the  dish-cloth  and  the  wiping 
towels  clean  and  sweet. 

"Even  if  you  have  cheap  dishes,  common  glass,  and 
plated  silver  at  home,  there  is  no  reason  why  you  should 
not  learn  how  to  care  for  them  properly.  Even  a  five- 
cent  coffee-cup  should  not  be  nicked,  and  boiling-hot 


THE   "MAKING-OVER"   CLUB  47 

water  ought  not  to  be  turned  over  the  plainest  of  white 
crockery  plates,  for  it  may  crackle  them.  And  wouldn't 
you  rather  drink  water  out  of  a  clear,  shining  glass  than 
out  of  one  that  is  dull  and  covered  with  lint?" 

Here  Mr.  Green  said  that  his  time  was  up,  but  that 
Miss  Elwell,  one  of  his  teachers,  would  meet  in  Room 
10  any  of  the  girls  and  their  mothers  who  wanted  to  form 
a  summer  "Making-Over"  Club.  This  club  would  give 
most  of  its  time  to  making  over  clothes,  but  it  might 
later  take  up  other  experiments,  such  as  making  jellies, 
canning  rhubarb,  drying  apples,  and  the  like. 

"Goody,  goody,  goody!"  whispered  Ellen  to  her 
mother.  "Miss  Elwell  is  our  prettiest  teacher,  and  she 
has  be-u-tiful  dresses.  One  of  the  girls  says  she  is 
rich." 

"Well,  that  certainly  isn't  true,  Ellen,"  said  her 
mother.  "Mr.  Green  himself  told  me  that  Miss  Elwell 
is  quite  poor.  She  only  gets  seven  hundred  dollars  a 
year,  and  while  that  may  seem  to  you  like  a  good  deal 
of  money,  she  has  little  to  spend  on  herself  because 
she  helps  support  a  mother  and  an  invalid  brother. 
What  should  you  say,  Ellen,  if  I  told  you  that  Miss 
Elwell  makes  all  her  own  dresses  and  trims  her  own 
hats?" 

"Why,  mother!"  Ellen  gasped.  "She  couldn't.  She 
has  lovely  things.     Today  in  school  she  had  on  a  sky- 


48  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

blue  dress  that  just  matched  her  eyes,  and  she  looked 
so  sweet  that  I  wanted  to  hug  her." 

"Miss  Elwell  is  certainly  charming/ '  replied  her 
mother,  "but  she  certainly  does  make  all  her  own  clothes. 
That  is  why  Mr.  Green  has  asked  her  to  take  charge  of 
the  ' Making-Over'  Club." 

During  the  summer  that  followed  there  were  making- 
over  committees  in  more  than  twenty  homes.  With 
Miss  Elwell  to  show  them  how,  the  girls  and  their  mothers 
made  from  old  dresses  and  pieces  enough  clothes  for  the 
coming  fall  and  winter.  It  was  wonderful  how  a  ruffle 
here  and  a  fold  there  could  be  made  to  cover  up  worn 
and  faded  spots. 

Miss  Elwell  helped  each  girl  and  each  mother  to  cut 
out  a  simple  skirt  and  waist  pattern  that  fitted  exactly. 
From  such  a  pattern  a  dress  could  easily  be  cut.  The 
idea  was  to  start  with  the  simple-model  pattern,  and 
then  with  tucks,  yokes,  trimmings,  etc.,  to  add  touches 
that  made  each  dress  different  from  the  others.  As  Mrs. 
Sanborn  said,  when  a  girl  could  make  one  style  of  dress 
well,  it  was  a  simple  matter  for  her  to  learn  to  make 
others.  So  they  all  practised  making  one  dress  that 
would  both  fit  well  and  look  well. 

Miss  Elwell  was  very  willing  to  tell  the  girls  the  secrets 
of  her  own  pretty  clothes.  She  said  she  had  learned 
that  crepes  were  among  the  most  desirable  dress  goods 


THE   "MAKING-OVER"   CLUB  49 

to  buy.  She  used  cotton  crepes  for  her  summer  dresses, 
and  woollen  crepes  for  her  winter  ones.  A  good  crepe 
can  be  bought  for  twenty-five  cents  a  yard,  and  some- 
times for  fifteen  cents.  If  it  is  shrunk  well  before  being 
made  up,  it  will  give  no  trouble.  All  crepes  wash  easily, 
and  require  no  starching  and  little  ironing.  There  is 
something  dainty  and  graceful  about  these  goods  which 
makes  them  especially  suitable  for  summer  wear,  Miss 
El  well  thought.  And  even  for  winter,  she  said  she  had 
found  that  dark  blue  or  dark  brown  wool  crepes  were 
satisfactoiy.  These  she  washed  either  in  warm  water 
or  in  naphtha. 

One  advantage  in  using  crepes,  she  explained,  was  the 
time  saved  in  washing  and  ironing;  they  also  wore  better. 
Dress  goods  which  have  to  be  heavily  starched  and 
ironed  each  time  that  they  are  washed,  wear  out  much 
sooner  than  goods  which  can  be  simply  cleansed  with 
warm  water  and  good  soap,  and  do  not  require  strong 
powders  and  fluids  to  remove  the  dirt. 

At  the  end  of  the  summer  the  entire  Sanborn  family 
agreed  that  they  never  had  had  a  pleasant er  time.  They 
not  only  managed  to  live  on  Mr.  Sanborn's  half-pay, 
but  they  saved  a  few  dollars  to  put  in  the  savings-bank. 
They  voted  the  "Making-Over"  Committee  a  great  suc- 
cess, and  decided  that  it  ought  to  serve  whether  the  shop 
ran  on  full  time  or  half-time. 


50  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

The  first  Friday  of  the  fall  term  each  teacher  in  the 
school  spent  the  whole  afternoon  hearing  reports  from 
the  members  of  the  different  Making-Over  and  Home- 
Garden  Clubs,  and  the  principal  congratulated  them  on 
their  good  work  in  a  highly  complimentary  speech. 


VI 
WISE  SPENDING 

The  chief  industry  of  Mansfield,  a  small  thriving 
town,  was  the  making  of  nails,  in  which  were  employed 
nearly  two  thousand  men  and  boys.  One  day  the  news 
was  spread  about  that  the  owner  of  the  nail  factory, 
Alfred  Heywood,  had  bought  the  big  brick  house  on  Em- 
erson Hill,  and  intended  to  move  into  town  right  away. 
The  boys  and  girls  were  on  tiptoe  with  excitement,  for  it 
was  said  that  Mr.  Heywood  had  two  sons,  one  fourteen 
and  the  other  sixteen  years  old,  and  a  daughter  twelve 
years  old. 

"I  suppose,"  said  one,  "the  Heywood  girl  will  have 
to  go  to  our  school  even  if  she  is  rich,  because  it  is  the 
onlv  one  in  town." 

"No,  she  won't/'  said  another.  "Rich  girls  have 
tutors  or  governesses.  It  is  absurd  to  suppose  she  will 
come  to  a  common  school  like  ours." 

Remarks  of  this  kind  were  heard  on  every  side.  One 
story  about  the  boys  was  that  each  of  them  had  an  auto- 
mobile of  his  own.  One  girl  insisted  that  the  family 
had  ten  servants,  not  including  a  coachman  and  a  chauf- 

51 


52  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

few.  When  the  new  family  finally  arrived,  the  public 
school  had  been  in  session  three  weeks.  On  the  follow- 
ing Monday  most  of  the  pupils  were  at  school  earlier 
than  usual,  so  as  to  be  sure  not  to  miss  seeing  the  new- 
comers if  they  appeared. 

And  they  were  not  disappointed,  for  at  eight-thirty 
Mr.  Heywood  himself,  the  two  boys,  and  the  girl  ar- 
rived. The  pupils  had  almost  to  rub  their  eyes  to  believe 
what  they  saw,  for  the  Heywoods  came  on  foot  without 
display  of  any  kind. 

"Huh,"  said  Margaret  Armstrong,  "her  dress  isn't 
as  good  as  mine." 

"No,"  answered  her  chum;  "and  her  hat  hasn't  a 
single  flower  on  it." 

"Well,  I  don't  believe  they're  so  rich  after  all,"  said 
another  girl. 

One  of  the  teachers  who  happened  to  be  passing  just 
then  overheard  the  last  two  remarks  and  stopped  to 
say:  "Do  you  want  me  to  tell  you  something,  girls? 
Don't  you  know  that  the  people  who  are  really  worth 
while  are  always  modest  and  careful  in  their  dress? 
They  never  make  a  foolish  display  of  anything,  how- 
ever rich  they  may  be.  And  it  would  be  especially 
foolish  to  wear  expensive,  showy  clothes  to  school." 

These  words  of  the  teacher  sobered  the  girls  some- 
what, and  Margaret  looked  a  little  ashamed,  for  she 


WISE  SPENDING  53 

had  worn  her  best  clothes  to  school  that  day  just  because 
she  was  afraid  of  feeling  ill-dressed  beside  the  Heywood 
girl. 

The  older  Heywood  boy,  James,  entered  the  gradu- 
ating class  of  the  high  school,  and  Edgar,  the  younger 
one,  fitted  into  the  second-year  class.  Mabel  Heywood 
was  placed  in  the  seventh  grade  and,  to  the  great  delight 
of  Margaret,  was  assigned  a  seat  just  across  the  aisle 
from  hers.  Margaret  had  a  good  chance  to  observe  the 
newcomer.  Her  dress  was  a  brown  gingham  of  a  soft, 
pretty  shade,  but  much  darker  than  Margaret  thought 
suitable  for  the  daughter  of  a  rich  man.  It  was  simply 
made  with  a  tucked  yoke.  Her  hair  ribbon,  brown  to 
match  the  dress,  was  neither  the  heavy  watered  silk  nor 
the  satin  that  Margaret  admired  so  much — it  was  plain, 
washable  silk.  In  spite  of  the  ordinary  appearance  of 
Mabel's  clothes,  Margaret  decided  that  she  should  like 
the  girl.  She  noticed  that  her  finger-nails  were  clean, 
shining,  and  curved,  and  that  she  wore  no  rings  or  jew- 
elry of  any  kind.  Margaret  looked  around  the  room  at 
the  other  pupils,  but  could  not  see  another  girl  who  did 
not  wear  a  fancy  pin  or  ring  or  bracelet  of  some  kind. 
Even  Annie  Toley,  whose  father  was  dead  and  whose 
mother  went  out  cleaning  by  the  day,  wore  a  coral  pin 
and  a  big  gold  bracelet. 

At  recess  time,  on  the  boys'  side  of  the  school,  a  little 


54  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

crowd  gathered  around  James  Heywood,  urging  him  to 
come  to  a  meeting  of  the  football  team  the  next  Satur- 
day afternoon. 

"I'm  sorry,  but  I  can't/'  he  said.  "You  see  I'm 
going  to  work  in  the  factory  Saturdays." 

"Oh,  come  now,  do  you  expect  us  to  believe  that?" 
asked  one  of  the  boys  bluntly. 

"  That's  honest.  I'm  starting  in  this  year  to  learn 
father's  business.  That's  the  chief  reason  why  we 
moved  here.  I  can  play  football  or  anything  else  school 
days  after  school,  but  not  on  Saturdays." 

In  another  part  of  the  school  yard  Margaret  was 
talking  with  Mabel. 

"  Which  kind  of  hair  ribbons  do  you  like  best — wa- 
tered silk  or  satin?'  Margaret  asked,  in  an  attempt 
to  get   acquainted. 

"Why,  I  never  thought.  I  don't  believe  I  ever  had 
a  satin  one.  The  one  I  have  on  is  a  kind  of  silk  that 
washes  and  irons.  Mother  says  these  last  longer  than 
any  other  kind.  But  yours  is  very  pretty,"  she  added 
quickly. 

During  the  weeks  that  followed,  there  were  a  good 
many  surprises  in  the  town.  Naturally  the  interest  of 
most  of  the  townspeople  centred  in  the  new  factory 
owner's  family,  but  as  the  weeks  went  by  it  became 
evident  that  they  lived  very  much  as  other  people  did. 


WISE   SPENDING  55 

Mr.  Heywood  had  a  fine  large  automobile,  but  he  kept 
no  regular  chauffeur.  The  one  man  that  he  employed 
about  the  house  could  run  the  machine  when  necessary, 
and  so  could  James,  the  older  Heywood  boy.  It  was  he 
and  his  brother  Edgar  who  had  to  wash  the  car  and  keep 
it  clean.  Many  a  time  Edgar  had  to  refuse  an  invita- 
tion to  some  Saturday  frolic  with  the  other  boys  because 
the  car  needed  to  be  cleaned,  and  as  the  boys  trooped 
past  his  house  he  would  answer  their  call  by  tossing  his 
sponge  into  the  air. 

Before  Thanksgiving  time  half  the  boys  in  town  were 
begging  their  fathers  to  let  them  raise  chickens  in  then- 
back  yards.  The  reason  given  every  time  was :  "Edgar 
Heywood  does  it  to  earn  money." 

As  soon  as  the  Heywoods  were  settled  in  their  new 
home  Edgar  bought  ten  hens  with  a  part  of  his  monthly 
spending-money.  He  also  bought  the  lumber  for  the 
chicken-house  out  of  his  allowance,  and  built  it  himself 
with  a  little  help  from  the  chauffeur.  Mr.  Heywood 
had  permitted  his  son  to  try  the  chicken  experiment  on 
the  condition  that  he  take  the  whole  care  of  the  chickens, 
and  keep  them  from  running  wild.  So,  in  addition  to 
a  hen-house,  Edgar  had  to  fence  in  a  run  for  the  chick- 
ens. He  found  that  this  would  take  two  dollars  more 
than  he  had  in  his  tin  box,  so  he  asked  his  father  to 
help  him  out. 


56  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"Why,  I  thought  this  was  your  affair,  Edgar,"  Mr. 
Heywood  said.  "Do  you  want  me  to  buy  you  out  and 
run  the  chicken-yard  myself?" 

"No,  of  course  not,"  Edgar  answered.  "All  I  want 
is  a  little  help." 

"Oh,  I  see,  you  want  a  loan  of  two  dollars.  Yes, 
I'll  lend  you  the  money.  For  how  long  do  you  want 
it?" 

Edgar  thought  a  moment.  "Two  months,  I  guess. 
I  shall  need  all  my  allowance  this  month  to  buy  grain 
for  the  hens." 

"All  right,"  said  his  father.  "Write  out  a  promis- 
sory note  and  give  it  to  me  after  supper,  and  I  will  have 
the  money  ready  for  you." 

Edgar  was  up  in  his  workroom  in  the  attic  of  the  barn 
making  out  this  note  when  two  of  the  schoolboys  came 
in  to  see  him. 

"I'm  in  debt.  No  sodas  this  month,"  were  the  words 
with  which  he  greeted  them.  And  he  held  up  the  slip  of 
paper  on  which  he  had  written: 

October  7,  1915. 
Two  months  from  date  I  promise  to  pay  my  father, 
Alfred  Heywood,  two  dollars  and  twenty-five  cents 
(the  twenty-five  cents  being  interest). 

Edgar  Heywood. 


WISE  SPENDING  57 

"You  don't  mean  that  your  father  wouldn't  give  you 
any  money  to  help  you  out?'  asked  one  of  the  boys  in 
astonishment. 

"Well,  this  is  business,  you  see.  I'm  buying  the  hens 
to  make  money,  and  it  wouldn't  be  real  business  if  I 
used  somebody  else's  money.  Of  course,  if  I  borrow 
money  that  is  different. " 

The  boys  looked  unconvinced,  and  Edgar  continued, 
eager  to  justify  his  father. 

"Father  says  no  boy  ever  grew  up  into  a  successful 
business  man  unless  he  learned  business  habits.  So  I 
have  to  keep  account  of  every  cent  I  spend  both  for  fun 
and  for  business.  When  I  get  short  of  money,  if  it  is 
absolutely  necessary,  I  borrow  from  father  or  mother 
or_ James.  And  every  time  I  borrow  I  write  out  a  prom- 
issory note,  just  as  if  I  were  a  real  business  man  bor- 
rowing money  from  a  bank." 

"Yes,"  said  one  of  the  boys,  "but  suppose  that  at 
the  end  of  two  months  you  couldn't  pay,  what  then?" 

"I  always  have  paid,  but  if  when  the  time  was  almost 
up  I  found  that  I  wasn't  going  to  have  the  money,  I 
should  try  to  do  some  extra  work  to  earn  it,  or  if  I 
couldn't  do  that,  I  should  ask  father  to  extend  the  note 
for   a  few  weeks." 

Would  he  do  that?"  asked  one  of  his  questioners. 
Yes,  if  I  had  a  good  reason  for  not  having  the  money. 


u 


u 


58  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

But  if  I  had  bought  a  new  bat  or  a  new  pair  of  skates 
after  he  lent  me  the  money,  he  probably  wouldn't  renew 
the  note." 

"But  what  could  he  do?  If  you  didn't  have  the 
money,  you  couldn't  give  it  to  him,  could  you?' 

"No,  but  father  would  expect  me  to  sell  enough  of 
my  hens  to  make  up  two  dollars  and  twenty-five  cents. 
Otherwise  I  should  lose  my  credit,  as  father  calls  it. 
He  says  that  the  only  way  to  succeed  in  business  is 
always  to  keep  your  promises.  If  I  didn't  keep  my 
promise  to  pay  that  two  dollars  and  a  quarter  at  just  such 
a  date,  father  wouldn't  trust  me  another  time.  And  I 
would  rather  be  trusted  by  father  than  by  any  other 
man  I  know." 

"That  sounds  all  right  to  me,  Edgar,"  said  one  of 
his  visitors,  "but  what  about  that  twenty-five  cents? 
Isn't  that  pretty  high  interest?  If  you  put  two  dollars 
in  a  savings-bank  at  four  per  cent  interest  you  would 
only  get  eight  cents  interest  for  a  whole  year,  and  two 
months'  interest  would  only  amount  to  six  and  three- 
quarter  cents." 

"  Father  says  he  always  has  to  pay  more  interest  on 
a  short-time  loan  than  on  a  long  one,  and  then  you  see 
I  have  given  him  no  security.  The  credit  of  a  bank  is 
almost  always  good;  but  with  a  man  or  a  boy  all  kinds 
of  things  may  happen  to  prevent  him  from  paying  back 


WISE  SPENDING  59 

the  money  that  he  has  borrowed.  So  a  person  usually 
has  to  pay  more  interest  than  a  bank  would,  because  the 
risk  is  greater." 

Here  Edgar's  face  broke  into  a  smile. 

"Once  in  a  while  father  borrows  from  me/5  he  said. 
"Last  summer  he  took  me  to  Cincinnati  one  day  on  a 
business  trip.  We  went  on  a  mileage  ticket,  but  when 
we  reached  the  city  father  discovered  that  he  hadn't  a 
cent  with  him.  He  thought  we  should  have  to  telegraph 
home  for  some  money,  but  I  had  five  dollars  with  me 
that  I  was  going  to  use  in  buying  some  padded  football 
trousers.  I  told  father  he  could  borrow  that  if  it  was 
enough,  and  I'd  wait  for  the  trousers. 

"He  offered  to  give  me  a  note  for  the  money,  and  pay 
me  a  dollar  interest.  But  I  wouldn't  let  him  do  that. 
I  didn't  think  it  was  honorable  to  take  advantage  of 
him.  Father  said  I  was  right;  a  person  ought  never  to 
take  advantage  of  another  person's  trouble.  He  paid 
me  back  by  doing  me  a  favor.  We  went  to  the  store, 
picked  out  the  trousers,  and  ordered  them  sent  home 
C.  0.  D.,  in  care  of  father." 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  with  the  money  that  you 
make  on  your  hens?"  asked  one  of  the  boys. 

"Just  save  it.  Put  it  in  the  bank  until  I  need  it  for 
something.  I've  got  two  hundred  dollars  in  the  bank 
now  that  I  earned  myself,"  he  said  proudly. 


60  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  Edgar  and  James  Heywood 
did  not  have  so  much  time  for  football,  baseball,  fishing, 
and  the  like,  as  most  of  the  other  boys,  they  soon  became 
very  popular.  It  was  not  unusual  to  hear  a  boy  say: 
"This  is  the  way  Edgar  does,"  or,  "I'm  going  to  ask 
James  about  that." 

Mabel,  too,  became  a  favorite  with  the  girls  of  her 
own  age.  She  was  always  good-natured  and  ready  for 
a  good  time,  and  never  acted  superior  or  critical.  One 
day  she  asked  five  of  her  classmates  that  she  knew  best 
to  come  to  her  house  to  supper  the  next  evening.  This 
was  the  first  time  that  any  of  the  girls  had  been  invited 
into  the  "big  house'7  since  the  Heywoods  had  moved  in. 

Margaret  was  all  in  a  flutter,  and  her  mother  spent 
most  of  the  evening  washing  and  ironing  her  best  white 
skirt  and  dress.  She  did  up  her  hair  in  twelve  crimpers 
instead  of  four,  as  usual.  The  next  evening  the  five 
girls,  all  in  white  dresses  and  gay  ribbons,  went  in  great 
eagerness  to  the  house  on  the  hill.  Mrs.  Heywood  and 
Mabel  met  them  in  the  hall,  and  Mabel  took  them  up 
into  her  room  to  leave  their  coats  and  hats. 

Margaret  thought  Mabel  would  probably  change  her 
dress  while  they  waited  for  her,  but  it  was  soon  evident 
that  she  was  already  dressed  for  the  evening.  She  had 
on  a  dark-blue  challis,  which  was  sprinkled  over  with 
tiny    dark-red   rosebuds,    and    the   ribbon  in   her   hair 


WISE   SPENDING  61 

matched  the  rosebuds.  Her  hair  was  neatly  braided, 
but  did  not  look  any  more  crimped  than  it  was  every 
day  at  school. 

After  supper  when  the  girls  were  up-stairs  in  Mabel's 
room  looking  over  some  pictures,  they  got  to  talking 
about  dress.  " Don't  you  like  white  dresses?'  Mar- 
garet asked  Mabel. 

"Yes,"  answered  Mabel,  "but  mother  won't  let  me 
wear  white  starched  dresses  much.  It  is  so  hard  to 
keep  them  looking  well,  and  in  hot  weather  it  takes  so 
much  time  and  strength  to  iron  them." 

"But  don't  you  have  a  maid  to  iron  them  for  you?" 
insisted  Margaret. 

"We  have  only  one  maid,  and  if  she  had  to  iron  many 
starched  clothes  she  wouldn't  have  time  for  much  else. 
Mother  says  I  may  have  as  many  white  dresses  as  I 
am  willing  to  iron  myself.  So  I  have  one  white  dotted 
muslin.  Most  of  my  other  thin  dresses  are  challis,  or 
crepe,  or  seersucker,  and  don't  need  starching." 

Mabel,  seeing  that  it  would  please  the  girls,  brought 
out  from  her  closet  her  summer  dresses,  and  showed  them 
to  her  visitors.  Then  they  went  down  into  the  big  living- 
room  and  played  games  until  it  was  time  to  go  home. 

When  Margaret  told  her  mother  about  her  good  time, 
she  added:  "Everything  is  so  plain  !  Why,  they  haven't 
as  many  vases  as  we  have !" 


62  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"Perhaps  we  have  too  many.  I  think  so  every  time 
I  dust  them,"  her  mother  said.  "I  was  reading  last 
night  that  rich  people  often  know  how  to  live  cheaper 
and  save  themselves  more  work  than  poor  people  do. 
And  if  a  family  like  the  Heywoods  can  have  plainly  fur- 
nished rooms,  and  raise  hens;  and  wear  clothes  that  wash 
easily,  I  don't  see  why  we  can't. " 

And  so  they  could,  and  did,  and  so  may  any  sensible 
family. 


VII 
SPARE  TIME 

One  December  day,  not  many  years  ago,  a  fourteen- 
year  old  boy  stood  on  the  rude  wooden  platform  of  the 
railroad  station  at  Banks,  Alabama.  He  looked  excited 
and  a  little  awed,  for  men,  women,  and  children  had 
come  to  see  him  off.  And  when  the  train  pulled  in  the 
boys  hurrahed,  and  the  men  shook  hands  with  him  and 
wished  him  a  successful  trip.  His  father  waved  his  hat 
from  his  seat  in  the  farm  wagon  and  turned  the  horse 
toward  home. 

This  boy  was  a  Corn  Club  prize-winner,  and  was 
taking  the  most  eventful  trip  of  his  life.  He  was  going 
to  Washington  to  see  the  Capitol  of  the  nation,  and  also 
to  call  on  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  and  the  President. 
When  he  reached  Washington  he  was  met  by  a  govern- 
ment official  and  taken  to  a  big  hotel,  with  elevators, 
soft  carpets,  and  a  dining-room  with  hundreds  of  tables. 
At  the  hotel  his  guide  introduced  him  to  ten  other  boys 
of  about  his  age,  who  also  had  come  from  distant  towns. 

These  eleven  boys  spent  seven  busy  days  sightseeing 
in  and  about  Washington.     They  had  a  trip  down  the 

63 


64  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

Potomac  to  Mount  Vernon;  they  were  shown  the  gov- 
ernment buildings  and  other  objects  of  interest.  They 
were  received  at  the  White  House  by  the  President, 
and  were  given  special  cards  of  admission  to  the  Senate 
and  the  House  of  Representatives.  When  they  visited 
Congress  they  were  introduced  to  the  senators  and  rep- 
resentatives from  their  own  States,  who  talked  with 
them  as  if  they  were  grown  men. 

The  boys  accepted  an  invitation  to  meet  the  Com- 
mittee on  Agriculture  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  for  two  hours  the  busy  statesmen  talked  earnestly 
with  them.  A  stenographer  took  down  every  word  that 
they  said,  and  all  this  was  later  printed.  The  boys  also 
made  a  visit  to  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture, 
where  they  were  received  with  great  courtesy,  and  had 
their  photographs  taken.  The  Secretary  told  them  that 
the  whole  country  was  amazed  to  learn  what  schoolboys 
under  sixteen  years  of  age  could  do. 

And  what  were  the  wonderful  things  these  boys  had 
done?  They  had  not  fought  in  battle,  nor  had  they 
saved  anybody's  life.  They  were  merely  Corn  Club 
prize-winners.  Each  of  them  had  raised  an  acre  of  corn. 
In  all  the  Southern  States  schoolboys  had  been  organ- 
ized into  clubs,  each  boy  promising  to  raise  an  acre  of 
corn,  and  to  do  all  the  work  of  planting,  harvesting,  and 
selling  himself.     In  addition  to  the  first  prize  of  a  trip 


> 


These  eleven  boys  spent  seven  busy  days  sightseeing  in  and 

about  Washington. 


SPARE  TIME  65 

to  Washington,  there  were  smaller  prizes  of  money, 
farm  animals,  and  tools,  books  on  agriculture,  watches, 
clothes,  and  the  like. 

The  fact  that  ten  country  boys,  instead  of  spending 
their  spare  time  fishing  and  hunting,  had  used  it  to  raise 
an  acre  of  corn  is  not  in  itself  wonderful.  But  in  addi- 
tion to  the  eleven  prize-winners  who  visited  Washington, 
46,225  other  boys  also  raised  an  acre  of  corn  each.  This 
means  that  in  one  year  the  Southern  States,  through 
these  boys,  raised  nearly  50,000  more  acres  of  corn  than 
ever  before.  Counting  150  bushels  to  an  acre,  and  $1.00 
the  net  price  per  bushel,  the  value  of  the  boys'  com 
crop  was  about  $7,000,000.  It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that 
congressmen  were  interested  in  boys  who  could  actually 
earn  millions  of  dollars  a  year  in  spare  time. 

The  whole  world  has  been  astonished  at  what  the 
Corn  Club  boys  have  been  able  to  do.  They  keep  up 
their  school  work  and  home  chores  just  as  they  always 
have;  raising  corn  is  only  an  extra  task.  Many  boys 
have  had  better  and  larger  crops  than  their  fathers. 
One  of  the  prize-winners  walked  three  miles  to  school, 
but  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  did  not  have  so  much 
time  for  farm  work  as  some  of  the  other  boys,  he  had  a 
prize  acre.  Of  course,  much  of  the  work  can  be  done 
during  the  summer  vacation,  but  the  hardest  part — 
ploughing  and  planting — comes  during  the  school  time. 


66  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

The  Corn  Club  boys  are  scientific  farmers.  When  a 
boy  wants  to  join  a  club  he  notifies  his  teacher,  and  either 
the  teacher  or  some  other  school  official  enrolls  him  in 
the  nearest  organization.  His  name  is  sent  to  both  the 
State  and  the  national  department  of  agriculture,  and  he 
receives  full  instructions  as  to  what  to  do.  Of  course, 
he  has  to  agree  to  raise  his  crop  according  to  the  same 
rules  that  the  other  boys  are  observing,  or  he  could  not 
try  for  the  prizes.  But  he  is  glad  to  do  this.  An  ambi- 
tious boy  is  always  eager  to  do  things  the  right  way. 

The  girls  on  the  farm,  like  the  boys,  are  now  using 
their  spare  time  to  save  and  earn  money.  They  have 
formed  tomato  clubs,  canning  clubs,  and  the  like.  These 
are  the  requirements  for  membership  in  a  tomato  club: 

1.  The  girl  must  not  be  less  than  ten  nor  more  than 
eighteen  years  old. 

2.  She  must  plant  one-tenth  of  an  acre  of  land. 

3.  She  must  follow  carefully  the  directions  sent  her 
by  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 

4.  She  must  plan  her  own  crop  and  do  her  own 
work.  Heavy  work  may  be  hired,  but  the  time  must 
be  charged. 

5.  When  she  counts  up  her  expenses  she  must  use  the 
same  prices  as  the  other  club  members:  one  dollar  for 
the  rent  of  the  land;  ten  cents  an  hour  for  assistance; 
two  dollars  a  ton  for  manure. 


SPARE   TIME  67 

6.  Her  garden  and  the  crop  must  be  carefully  mea- 
sured by  two  persons  who  are  not  her  relatives. 

Each  girl  is  supposed  not  to  sell  her  tomatoes  unless 
she  can  get  a  good  price  for  them.  If  the  market  price 
is  low  when  her  tomatoes  are  ready  for  sale,  she  cans 
them  for  winter  use — either  to  sell  or  to  eat  at  home. 
It  is  considered  a  waste  of  time  and  money  to  sell  a  good 
article  at  too  low  a  price.  Thus  the  club  teaches  the 
girls  to  be  good  business  women  and  to  value  even  their 
spare  time. 

This  is  the  account  of  one  Tomato  Club  girl: 


PAID 

Rent  of  land SI  .00 

Planting 50 

Manure  and  fertilizer 3 .  00 

Cultivation 1 .00 

Gathering 1 .  50 

Cans  and  canning  outfit 8 .  27 

Cost  of  canning 4 .  50 

Total  expense $19 .  77 


RECEIVED 

Cash  sales  of  fresh  vegetables S8 .  00 

Cash  sales  of  canned  goods 25 .  00 

Value  of  vegetables  used  at  home 10 .  00 

Total  receipts $43 .00 

Less  expenses 19 .  77 

Net  profit $23.23 


68  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

Some  girls  have  done  still  better,  as  the  following  net 
profits  of  different  members  show:  $78.37,  $60.51,  $67.53, 
$67.73,  $74.80. 

The  club  members  have  had  such  unusual  success  that 
many  girls  who  live  in  districts  where  there  are  no  clubs 
have  raised  tomatoes  by  themselves. 

Home-canned  tomatoes  are  usually  purer  and  better 
in  every  way  than  those  canned  in  large  factories.  A 
good  supply  of  these  for  winter  use  can  be  made  a  source 
of  pleasure  to  any  family.  An  appetizing  supper  dish 
for  cold  winter  nights  is  tomato  toast  and  hot  cocoa 
made  with  milk.  A  whole  family  can  make  a  meal  on 
these  two  things.  The  tomato  toast  is  made  from  thick, 
even  slices  of  bread,  toasted  brown  and  well  buttered, 
with  the  hot  tomato  turned  over  them. 

Many  kinds  of  nourishing  soups  are  made  from  home- 
canned  tomatoes.  Beef  soup  is  much  improved  by  the 
addition  of  a  cupful  of  tomato  to  a  quart  of  the  broth. 
At  a  girls'  summer  camp,  where  only  the  most  healthful, 
nourishing  food  is  served,  twice  a  week  the  supper  con- 
sists of  tomato  bisque,  cream  of  tartar  biscuit,  cold  apple 
sauce,  and  milk.  This  tomato  soup  is  delicious  and  nour- 
ishing. The  canned  tomatoes  are  strained,  and  to  a 
quart  of  the  strained  hot  juice  is  added  a  pinch  of  soda 
and  a  quart  of  hot  milk.  The  milk  is  poured  into  the 
juice  slowly.    After  the  two  are  stirred  together  they 


SPARE   TIME  69 

must  not  be  allowed  to  boil,  or  the  acid  of  the  tomato 
will  curdle  the  milk.  The  mixture  is  peppered  and 
salted  as  desired. 

Another  simple  tomato  dish  is  scalloped  tomatoes. 
This  is  made  of  tomato  and  dried  bread  crumbs,  sweet- 
ened, salted,  and  buttered — if  butter  is  not  too  expen- 
sive— and  baked  in  the  oven.  A  tomato  omelet  is  a 
plain  omelet  with  hot  tomato  folded  in.  Every  house- 
keeper knows  many  other  inexpensive  and  wholesome 
dishes  that  can  be  made  with  canned  tomatoes.  There- 
fore, any  girl  may  be  sure  that  her  work  will  be  appre- 
ciated and  will  actually  save  her  family  money. 

During  the  late  summer  and  the  fall  there  are  berries 
and  fruits  that  can  be  bought  bv  the  bushel  and  canned 
in  spare  time.  The  chief  expense  is  for  the  fruit  and  the 
sugar,  but  some  things,  like  blueberries,  are  best  when 
they  are  only  moderately  sweet.  Most  families  like 
pies  and  shortcakes  made  with  raspberries,  blueberries, 
etc.  One  large  familv,  in  which  there  are  four  hearty 
boys,  often  makes  its  evening  meal  of  soup  of  some  kind, 
blueberry  shortcake,  and  milk. 

Any  girl  who  is  willing  to  work  can  find  some  way  of 
using  her  spare  time  to  help  out  the  preserve  closet. 

A  noted  man  has  said:  "If  I  know  what  a  bov  does 
in  his  spare  time,  I  can  tell  you  what  kind  of  man  he 
will  be."    This  statement  was  meant  to  include  girls 


70  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

also.  And  surely  the  Corn  Club  boys  and  the  Tomato 
Club  girls  will  grow  up  into  thrifty,  successful  men  and 
women. 

A  woman  once  visited  a  large  city  school,  and  as  the 
principal  took  her  into  one  room  he  said:  "Do  you  see 
that  girl  in  the  fourth  seat  of  the  third  row?  She  is 
going  to  make  a  capable  woman,  and  if  she  goes  into 
business,  she  will  be  worth  a  great  deal  of  money  to 
somebody. " 

"How  do  you  know?"  asked  the  woman  in  surprise. 
"There  are  many  other  children  who  look  much  brighter 
than  she." 

"Yes,  there  are  a  dozen  pupils  in  this  room  that  are 
quicker  to  learn  than  she,  and  can  usually  make  a  better 
recitation.  But  Ellen  is  almost  the  only  girl  in  the  school 
who  wastes  no  time  in  studying  her  lessons,  and  who 
makes  good  use  of  her  spare  time." 

"Spare  time?"  interrupted  the  visitor.  "I  didn't 
know  that  you  let  your  pupils  have  any  spare  time  in 
school.  I  thought  the  teachers  were  supposed  to  keep 
their  classes  busy  every  minute." 

"No  teacher  can  possibly  see  that  forty  different  per- 
sons are  busy  all  the  time,"  replied  the  principal.  "Sup- 
pose, for  example,  that  this  is  the  hour  when  the  A 
division  is  studying  history,  and  the  B  division  is  reciting 
arithmetic.     Ellen  is  a  hard  worker,  and  she  may  finish 


SPARE  TIME  71 

her  history  lesson  ten  minutes  before  the  period  is  up. 
Instead  of  doing  nothing,  or  scribbling  or  fooling,  Ellen 
turns  at  once  to  something  that  is  worth  while.  She  never 
wastes  a  minute.  I'm  not  sure,  but  I  think  she  is  doing 
some  spare-time  work  now/7  and  the  principal  looked  at 
his  watch.  "  Follow  me  and  we  will  walk  through  the 
aisles  to  see  the  pupils'  desk-work.  Notice  particularly 
what  Ellen  is  doing." 

A  good  many  pupils  fidgeted  nervously  and  pretended 
to  be  studying  industriously  as  the  visitor  and  the  prin- 
cipal passed.  Ellen,  however,  seemed  too  busy  even  to 
look  up,  and  gave  a  little  start  when  the  principal  spoke. 

"What  are  you  doing,  Ellen?'  he  asked  with  an  in- 
terested smile. 

"I'm  just  making  up  some  pass-in  books,"  she  said. 
"I  always  make  them  up  ahead." 

"Won't  you  explain  to  this  friend  of  mine  what  a 
pass-in  book  is?*"  the  principal  asked. 

"Why,"  said  Ellen,  "all  our  written  work  has  to  be 
handed  in  on  paper  five  inches  wide  and  eight  inches 
long,  with  the  sheets  fastened  together  in  some  way. 
So  I  make  little  books  by  folding  large  sheets,  and  sewing 
them  with  white  thread.  Then  they  are  ready  for  use. 
I  now  have  enough  made  to  last  until  next  Friday." 

"What  do  you  do  with  that  red  ink?'  asked  the 
visitor. 


72  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"Oh,"  said  Ellen,  a  little  embarrassed;  "I  don't  al- 
ways use  that.  But  when  I  have  time,  I  like  to  make  a 
fancy  border  for  the  first  page  of  the  book."  And  she 
opened  her  desk  and  took  up  a  booklet  on  which  in 
black  and  red  inks  she  had  drawn  a  neat  scroll  border 
to  enclose  her  name,  grade,  date,  and  the  title  of  the 
paper. 

When  they  left  the  room  the  principal  said:  "Any 
girl  who  has  the  habit  of  using  her  spare  time  to  such 
good  advantage  will  make  a  good  business  woman." 

"But  surely  you  don't  believe  in  girls  and  boys  work- 
ing every  minute?" 

"No,  indeed.  In  one  of  the  grades  I  have  a  boy, 
Harold  Smith,  who,  like  Ellen,  knows  how  to  use  his 
spare  minutes.  Much  of  his  time  he  spends  playing  foot- 
ball and  baseball.  While  he  plays,  he  plays  hard.  Why, 
half  the  boys  in  the  playground  are  wasting  play  time, 
just  as  inside  here  they  are  wasting  study  time.  Watch 
a  crowd  at  recess.  How  many  of  them  are  playing  with 
a  zest?  Very  few.  They  run  around  a  few  minutes, 
and  then  get  in  a  corner  and  talk  or  look  on.  I  believe 
that  it  is  wrong  to  waste  pleasure  time  and  play  time  as 
well  as  to  waste  work  time. 

"In  school  Harold  is  busy  every  minute.  If  there  is 
a  window  to  be  fixed,  or  an  errand  to  do,  Harold  always 
has  time  to  do  it  without  spoiling  his  lessons.     I  asked 


Half  the  boys  in  the  playground  are  wasting  playtime." 


SPARE   TIME  73 

his  mother  what  he  did  with  himself  at  home,  and  she 
said:  'He  never  wastes  a  minute.  When  he  isn't  play- 
ing with  the  boys  or  working  in  the  yard,  he  is  reading. 
He  certainly  gets  pleasure  out  of  everything.'" 

If  we  always  do  earnestly  and  eagerly  whatever  we 
have  to  do,  whether  it  is  work  or  play,  we  shall  be  happier 
and  more  successful  than  those  who  let  many  of  their 
minutes  go  to  waste. 


VIII 
ONE  WAY  OUT 

The  most  tumbled-down  farm  on  the  Stony  Brook 
road  was  the  Currier  place.  Since  Silas  Currier  had 
been  sick  with  pneumonia,  two  years  before,  every- 
thing had  gone  wrong.  He  had  been  slow  in  gaining 
strength,  and  could  do  only  about  half  the  work  of  an 
able-bodied  farmer.  And,  worst  of  all,  he  was  the  only 
man  on  the  place.  His  wife  and  the  -three  children  did 
the  best  they  could,  but  the  oldest  boy,  John,  was  only 
fourteen,  and  it  seemed  to  take  all  their  time  to  attend 
to  the  housework,  look  after  the  hens,  and  make  the 
butter.  The  neighbors  had  begun  to  say:  "Poor  Lucy 
[Mrs.  Currier] !  It's  such  a  pity  she  had  to  go  and  marry 
a  good-for-nothing  man.    She  used  to  be  a  smart  girl." 

But  one  day  something  happened.  When  the  five- 
o'clock  stage  rumbled  down  the  road,  instead  of  passing, 
as  it  usually  did,  it  stopped  and  waited  while  a  stout, 
middle-aged  man  came  to  the  door.  Mrs.  Currier  an- 
swered the  knock,  and  to  the  stranger's  "Can  you  take 
me  in  for  the  night?    I  want  to  look  over  some  timber 

74 


ONE  WAY  OUT  75 

in  this  section/'  she  said:  "If  you  will  put  up  with  what 
we  have;  you  are  welcome." 

The  Currier  farm,  while  on  a  main  road,  was  twelve 
miles  from  a  railroad  station,  so  that,  while  hundreds  of 
automobiles  passed  the  house  every  week,  a  visitor  was 
a  rare  occurrence.  It  was,  therefore,  not  strange  that 
the  whole  household  should  be  a  little  excited.  John 
confided  to  his  twelve-year-old  brother,  Alphonse,  that 
he  bet  him  two  agates  "he's  some  big  bug — something 
like  a  Rockefeller.  Anyway,  ma's  going  to  have  griddle- 
cakes  for  supper,  just  on  account  of  him." 

When  the  stranger,  who  called  himself  Hayes,  had 
eaten  his  sixth  griddle-cake  with  maple-syrup,  he  said: 
"Finest  meal  I've  had  for  a  year.  You  are  a  splendid 
cook,  Mrs.  Currier.  And  that  syrup — my,  I  should  like 
to  take  some  of  that  back  home  with  me.  Will  you 
sell  me  some,  Mr.  Currier?  I'll  have  the  stage  take  it 
over  to  Ozark  and  ship  it  from  there  by  freight.  How 
much  is  it?" 

"Oh,  well,  it's  rather  late  in  the  season  for  good  syrup, 
so  I  calculate  I'll  let  you  have  it  for  seventy-five  cents 
a  gallon." 

"You  farmers  are  the  biggest  cheats  I  know,"  was 
the  stranger's  astonishing  reply.  "You  cheat  your- 
selves all  the  time,  and  that's  why  a  lot  of  you  are  poor 
and  stay  poor.     Down  in  the  city  they  always  charge 


76  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

more  for  an  article  when  it  begins  to  get  scarce.  What 
you  should  have  said  is: 

"Why, -this  is  extra  fine  quality  and  you  can't  pick  it 
up  everywhere  this  time  of  year,  so  while  the  early 
price  is  seventy-five  cents,  I'll  have  to  charge  you  one 
dollar  and  fifty  cents.  I  would  have  paid  it  in  a  min- 
ute." 

"Well,  it  isn't  more'n  once  in  a  dozen  years  that  we 
see  anybody  in  these  parts  who  doesn't  try  to  beat  us 
down  to  nothing/'  said  Mr.  Currier. 

Mr.  Hayes  tried  to  explain  that  the  farmers  ought 
not  to  allow  themselves  to  be  beaten  down. 

"You  owe  it  to  your  children  and  your  wife  to  make 
as  much  money  as  you  can  honestly,"  he  said. 

Dishes  were  almost  forgotten,  as  Mr.  Currier  and  his 
wife  and  Mr.  Hayes  talked  about  the  problems  of  farm- 
ing. On  the  way  over  in  the  stage  Mr.  Hayes  had  asked 
the  driver  about  the  prosperity  of  the  different  farmers, 
and  when  he  heard  that  the  Curriers  were  considered 
the  poorest  family  in  that  section,  he  had  said  to  him- 
self: "I'll  stop  off  there  and  see  if  I  can't  help  them  out 
a  bit." 

Mr.  Hayes  held  an  important  position  at  Washington 
in  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  and  was  more  inter- 
ested in  the  farmers  of  the  country  than  in  any  other 
class  of  people.     He  was  always  saying:  "The  farmers 


ONE  WAY  OUT  77 

are  the  finest  folks  in  the  world.  They  aren't  afraid  of 
work,  and  they  make  the  best  kind  of  citizens.  I'd 
rather  have  my  sons  brought  up  on  a  farm  than  in  the 
city  or  even  in  a  town.  It's  the  farmers  that  keep  the 
cities  going." 

When  Mrs.  Currier  had  finished  her  dishes  and  sent 
the  children  to  bed,  she  joined  the  two  men.  Mr.  Hayes 
greeted  her  with — 

"I've  been  trying  to  tell  your  husband  that  if  he  will 
take  better  care  of  his  health  for  a  while  he'll  feel  as 
well  and  be  able  to  do  as  much  work  as  before  he  was 
sick.  Nothing  takes  so  much  of  a  person's  strength 
and  ambition  as  pneumonia.  He  ought  to  eat  rich,  rare 
beef  once  every  day,  and  instead  of  three  meals,  for  a 
time  he  ought  to  have  four.  City  folks  eat  three  and 
they  don't  work  so  many  hours  a  day  as  you  do.  From 
five  till  seven  is  a  pretty  long  pull.  He  doesn't  need  to 
eat  a  lot  of  different  things,  but  you  just  try  making 
him  eat  milk,  eggs,  beef,  and  stews,  and  four  times  in- 
stead of  three,  and  in  six  months  he  won't  know  him- 
self. Instead  of  drinking  tea  at  every  meal,  make  it 
once  a  day,  and  all  of  you  take  milk  or  chocolate  or  hot 
broth  the  other  two  times.  Your  tough  roosters  will 
make  good  broth  and  won't  cost  you  much. 

"  Honestly,  Mrs.  Currier,  I  believe  you  and  your 
husband  have  a  wonderfully  fine  farm  here,  and  I  can't 


78  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

think  of  a  single  reason  why  you  shouldn't  prosper  so 
that  when  your  children  are  ready  you  can  give  them  a 
good  education.  But  the  first  thing  is  to  build  up  Mr. 
Currier's  health.  In  addition  to  the  four  meals,  I  wish 
he  would  try  taking  a  short  nap  in  the  middle  of  the  day. 
After  the  twelve-o'clock  dinner  he  ought  to  lie  down  for 
a  half-hour.  When  your  husband  is  like  himself  again, 
I'm  sure  things  will  look  brighter." 

"Yes,  but  we  can't  do  much  without  money,"  Mrs. 
Currier  replied.  "Our  barn  is  almost  falling  to  pieces  and 
we  ought  to  have  another  cow,  and  until  Silas  gets  strong 
enough  to  work  as  he  used  to  we  need  a  hired  man 
through  the  summer.  But  it's  useless  to  think  of  that 
because  we  simply  can't  get  any  money.  I'm  strong 
and  well,  but  I  can't  do  everything." 

"Can't  you  borrow  five  hundred  dollars  by  taking 
out  a  mortgage  on  your  farm?" 

"I  don't  believe  anybody  would  lend  us  money  on 
this  place  without  charging  us  ten  per  cent  interest," 
said  Mr.   Currier. 

"Yes,  but  you  don't  know  that  until  you've  tried. 
Your  wife  looks  like  a  good  business  woman.  What 
she  wants  to  do  is  to  get  the  names  of  all  the  people  who 
have  money  to  invest  for  twenty  miles  around  and  then 
try  one  after  another  for  a  loan.  Say  that  you  will  pay 
six  per  cent  and  no  more,  and  don't  act  as  if  you  ex- 


ONE  WAY  OUT  79 

pected  to  be  turned  down.  If  you  can't  raise  the  money 
up  here,  I'll  find  somebody  in  the  city  to  lend  it,  but  I 
think  you'll  get  it  here." 

Mr.  Hayes  had  insisted  on  being  called  to  eat  break- 
fast with  the  family,  so  they  all  sat  down  together  by 
lamplight  the  next  morning. 

"This  is  a  really  old-fashioned  house,  isn't  it?"  Mr. 
Hayes  remarked  between  his  mouthfuls  of  oatmeal. 
"I  had  a  bright  idea  last  night  when  I  kept  hearing  the 
honk-honk  of  the  automobiles.  There  isn't  any  kind 
of  a  place  between  Clinton,  ten  miles  north  of  here,  and 
Ozark,  twelve  miles  south,  where  anybody  can  be  sure 
of  getting  a  good  meal.  And  these  automobile  travellers 
are  the  hungriest  kind  of  folks.  This  little  valley  is  as 
pretty  as  a  picture,  and  with  a  few  changes  your  rooms 
could  be  made  to  look  as  they  did  forty  years  ago;  the 
attractions  of  the  scenery  and  of  your  house  would  draw 
people  like  a  magnet — especially  if  you  would  feed  them. 
If  I  were  you  I  should  put  up  a  sign-board  down  by  the 
road  with  something  like  this  printed  on  it: 


HOME-COOKED  FOOD  FOR  SALE 

Hot  and  Cold  Drinks  and  Sandwiches  Served 

Here 


80  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

Winter  and  summer  I  should  keep  that  sign  up,  and  I 
believe  you  would  make  money.  Your  children  could 
help  you  out  a  good  deal." 

Mrs.  Currier  talked  over  this  idea  with  John  and 
Alphonse  while  Mr.  Hayes  went  off  over  the  mountain 
with  her  husband  looking  at  timber.  Even  eight-year- 
old  Esther  listened  eagerly,  and  said  she  could  help 
make  sandwiches. 

"Let's  paint  the  sign  right  off/'  suggested  John,  "and 
show  it  to  Mr.  Hayes  when  he  comes  back." 

He  hunted  around  the  barn  until  he  found  a  weather- 
beaten  board,  and  with  the  help  of  his  mother  inserted 
the  words  in  green  paint. 

"Do  you  think  we'll  make  a  hundred  dollars?"  asked 
Alphonse,  who  thought  that  to  own  a  hundred  dollars 
would  make  a  family  rich. 

"There's  no  telling,"  said  his  mother.  "The  more  I 
think  about  it  the  more  I  like  the  idea.  I  wonder  that 
I  never  thought  of  it  myself.  In  hot,  dusty  weather  I 
am  pretty  sure  my  raspberry  shrub  and  ginger  shake 
would  taste  good  to  folks." 

When  the  men  returned  it  was  already  dark  and  sup- 
per was  on  the  table. 

"You'll  have  a  queer  supper  tonight,"  said  Mrs.  Cur- 
rier with  a  laugh.  "I'm  going  to  try  on  you  some  of 
the  things  I  could  make  to  sell.    I  want  you  to  tell  me 


"These  automobile  travellers  are  the  hungriest  kind 

of  folks." 


ONE  WAY  OUT  81 

what  is  good  and  what  isn't.  Do  you  suppose  you  could 
stand  three  kinds  of  drinks?" 

"I'm  sure  I  could/'  said  Mr.  Currier;  "I'm  as  hungry 
as  a  bear.  We  climbed  the  mountain  and  came  back  by 
the  stage  road.  Mr.  Hayes  says  we've  got  some  fine 
timber  up  there.  And  what  do  you  suppose?  He  says 
we  could  get  enough  timber  out  of  the  poorer  growth  to 
build  a  barn.  So  I'm  going  to  get  that  out  this  winter, 
have  it  dressed  at  the  mill,  and  start  the  barn  in  the 
spring." 

For  a  while  everything  was  forgotten  but  the  novel 
supper. 

There  were  cheese-and -jelly  sandwiches,  made  out  of 
Dutch  cheese  and  wild-grape  jelly;  cheese-and-nut  sand- 
wiches, made  of  cream  cheese  and  butternuts;  plain 
bread-and-butter  sandwiches,  spread  thick  with  delicious 
butter;  large  spicy  doughnuts;  elderberry  wine;  rasp- 
berry shrub;  ginger  shake  made  of  cider  vinegar,  mo- 
lasses, and  water;  plain  cake  with  a  thick  frosting  of 
maple-sugar  and  shagbark  walnuts. 

"Of  course  I  can  make  other  things,  but  I  didn't  have 
time  today.  Coffee,  eggs,  and  the  like  I  should  have  to 
fix  when  they  were  wanted,"  said  Mrs.  Currier. 

"  Perfectly  delicious,"  was  the  verdict  pronounced  by 
Mr.  Hayes  on  everything  that  he  ate. 

"I  can  see  that  I  don't  need  to  say  another  thing, 


82  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

Mrs.  Currier;  you  can  work  out  your  plans  better  than 
I  possibly  could  do  it  for  you." 

He  approved  of  the  sign — green  paint  and  all.  "You'll 
want  to  have  a  lantern  hung  over  it  after  dark  so  as  to 
get  evening  trade,  too/'  he  said. 

What  interested  John  more  than  anything  else  was 
the  talk,  after  supper,  about  the  timber  on  the  moun- 
tainside. 

"Did  you  know,  Mrs.  Currier,  that  you  and  your 
husband  are  really  rich  people?"  said  Mr.  Hayes,  while 
John  and  Alphonse  looked  at  him  in  blank  astonishment. 

"You  own  half  a  mountain  of  the  finest  timber  land 
in  this  part  of  the  country,  and  fifteen  acres  of  rich  val- 
ley land.  That  is  greater  wealth  than  nine-tenths  of 
the  city  folks  have.  Only  a  few  city  and  town  people 
have  any  property  except  their  furniture  and  clothes. 
They  live  in  rented  houses  and  spend  most  of  their 
money  in  paying  rent,  buying  food  at  high  prices,  and 
trying  to  have  a  good  time.  At  the  end  of  the  year  they 
often  have  nothing  to  show  for  the  money  they  have 
spent. 

"Here  in  the  country  every  fence  that  you  build,  eveiy 
tree  that  you  plant,  is  so  much  added  to  your  wealth. 
When  you  get  a  new  barn  and  have  your  house  repaired, 
one  of  these  days  some  man  with  a  fat  pocket-book  will 
turn  his  automobile  up  to  your  side  door  and  ask  how 


ONE  WAY  OUT  83 

much  you'll  sell  for.  He  will  offer  you  a  big  sum — for 
there's  many  a  city  man  that  would  pay  dearly  for  a 
summer  home  with  a  mountain  as  a  back  vard — but 
you'll  tell  him  it's  good  enough  for  you  to  keep." 

The  secret  ambition  of  John's  had  been  some  day  to 
go  to  the  city  to  live,  for  he  had  an  idea  that  if  he  was 
ever  going  to  be  rich  he  would  have  to  get  a  job  in  the 
city.  Mr.  Hayes  had  seen  the  astonished  look  in  the 
boys'  eyes  and  the  next  morning  asked  them  to  go  for 
a  tramp  with  him. 

"If  your  father  owned  a  big  estate  near  a  large  city 
and  kept  a  lot  of  servants,  horses,  and  automobiles,  he 
wouldn't  have  anything  finer  than  these  woods.  In  the 
spring  he's  going  to  send  to  the  State  Department  of 
Agriculture  and  get  three  hundred  spruce  seedlings  to 
plant.  By  cutting  out  only  a  few  trees  at  a  time  and 
planting  new  ones  he  can  make  this  land  more  valuable 
every  year. 

"One  thing  I  want  to  show  you  is  these  wild  grape- 
vines. Every  fall  there  is  a  large  demand  in  the  cities 
for  wild  grapes  to  use  in  making  jelly  and  preserves. 
Your  mother  can  use  most  of  them,  and  the  rest  vou 
can  sell.  Therefore,  you  want  to  take  care  of  these  vines, 
and  start  a  new  one  once  in  a  while." 

"I  never  knew  that  folks  planted  things  in  the  woods," 
said  Alphonse  in  surprise. 


84  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"  That's  one  of  the  best  places  to  plant  the  right  kind 
of  things/'  replied  Mr.  Hayes,  "since  forest  soil  is  always 
rich.  Then  up  in  the  clearing  I  saw  a  few  raspberry 
bushes.  Raspberry  jellies,  shrub,  and  jams  always  bring 
good  prices,  so  I  suggest  that  you  two  boys  start  out  to 
see  what  you  can  do  with  that  clearing.  Set  out  a  hun- 
dred more  cuttings  this  year  and  a  hundred  next.  See 
that  not  a  berry  goes  to  waste.  I  think  you'll  have  great 
fun  with  it." 

When  Mr.  Hayes  left  by  the  evening  stage  the  whole 
family  felt  as  if  they  were  losing  a  real  friend. 

"Oh,  you'll  hear  from  me,"  he  said.  "I'm  going  to 
write  to  you  every  once  in  a  while  and  ask  how  you  are 
getting  on." 

"He  has  done  us  more  good  than  if  he  had  given  us 
money,"  said  Mrs.  Currier. 

"He  seems  to  think  folks  can  make  money  even  if 
they  do  live  in  the  country,"  was  John's  comment. 


IX 

ONE  WAY  OUT 

(Continued) 

About  a  week  after  Mr.  Hayes's  departure  Mrs.  Cur- 
rier harnessed  up  old  Jerry,  put  a  sack  of  grain  into 
the  wagon,  and  a  lunch  for  herself,  and  set  out  down  the 
river  road.  She  was  off  on  an  all  day's  trip  to  find  some 
one  who  would  lend  them  five  hundred  dollars.  Never 
had  her  courage  been  greater  than  on  that  morning. 

"And  it's  all  because  of  one  man,"  she  said  to  the 
horse.  "Why,  what  under  the  sun  is  that?'  she  ex- 
claimed. She  had  rounded  a  bend  in  the  river  and  in- 
tended to  turn  the  horse  up  the  mountain  road  at  the 
left,  but  a  new  sign-post  caught  her  eye. 


HAND-MADE  TOYS  FOR  SALE 
INQUIRE  WITHIN 


In   amazement    she    read    and    re-read    these    words. 
Then  she  laughed.     "So,  old  Hiram  Johnson,  that  every- 

85 


86  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

body  says  is  a  lazy  ne'er-do-well,  has  taken  to  working. 
Guess  he's  had  the  same  visitor  as  we  have  had.  Think 
I'll  drop  in  a  minute." 

So  she  turned  into  the  drive  that  led  up  to  the  house. 
While  she  was  getting  out,  Hiram  came  to  the  door, 
leaning  heavily  on  his  cane,  for  he  was  badly  crippled 
with  rheumatism. 

"I  suppose  you  saw  my  sign,"  he  said,  "and  came  to 
see  what  it's  all  about." 

Mrs.  Currier  noticed  that  while  the  house  was  as  un- 
tidy as  ever,  it  seemed  cleaner.  Even  Hiram  himself  in 
some  way  looked  different. 

Before  she  could  ask  a  question,  however,  her  host 
said:  " Sit  down  and  let  me  tell  you  about  it.  The  other 
day  the  stage  stopped  to  leave  my  paper,  and  along  came 
a  stranger  who  said  he  wanted  to  stay  all  night.  It's 
been  some  time  since  anybody  has  wanted  to  put  up 
here,  but  I  said  he  was  welcome  if  he  could  get  along 
on  tea  and  crackers,  for  that's  all  I  had  just  then.  My 
rheumatism  was  particularly  bad  that  day,  so  I  said 
if  he  wanted  a  fire  in  his  bedroom  he  would  have  to 
make  it. 

"Well,  do  you  know,  he  made  himself  just  as  much  at 
home  as  if  he'd  known  me  all  his  life.  He  said  his  father 
was  a  farmer,  and  used  to  have  rheumatism  just  as  bad 
as  I.     When  he  found  how  poor  I  was,  and  how  Si  Pierce 


ONE  WAY  OUT  87 

was  going  to  foreclose  the  mortgage  next  spring,  he  got 
real  interested,  and  said  there  ought  to  be  some  way  out 
of  that.  I  almost  laughed  in  his  face  when  he  asked 
me  if  there  wasn't  some  kind  of  work  I  could  do.  I 
told  him  I  hadn't  been  able  to  walk  farther  than  the 
barn  for  two  years.  I  said :  1 1  can't  do  much  but  whittle 
to  pass  the  time  away,  and  there  isn't  any  money  in 
whittling. ' 

"To  make  a  long  story  short,  he  wanted  me  to  try 
whittling  out  toys  to  sell  to  automobilists.  At  first  it 
seemed  just  worse  than  hog  sense,  but  he  insisted  that 
city  folks  liked  hand-made  things,  and  the  wood  wouldn't 
cost  me  anything,  so  I'd  better  try.  I'm  only  making 
horses  and  cows  and  hens  now,  but  later  I'm  going  to 
make  barns  and  wagons,  and  the  whole  outfit." 

"Well,  I  never!"  said  Mrs.  Currier.  "That  same 
man  stopped  up  at  our  house  and  cheered  us  up  a  lot. 
I  guess  nobody  else  would  have  thought  of  making 
wooden  toys  to  sell." 

"I've  already  sold  several  dollars'  worth.  See  here.  I 
charge  twenty-five  cents  a  piece  for  the  hens,  and  thirty- 
five  for  the  cows  and  horses.  Later  I  shall  make  a  larger 
size  and  charge  more.  I  told  Mr.  Hayes  nobody  wrould 
pay  high  prices  like  those  for  toys,  but  he  said  he  knew 
better.  I  suppose  half  the  folks  stop  just  for  curiosity, 
and  then  they  get  interested  and  buy." 


88  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

When  Mrs.  Currier  again  drove  on  she  kept  saying  to 
herself:  "Well,  I  never  should  have  thought  it,"  mean- 
ing that  she  hadn't  supposed  Hiram  Johnson  would  brace 
up  as  he  had.  The  call  had  cheered  her,  and  although 
the  first  two  men  she  asked  about  lending  her  money 
had  looked  thoughtful  and  shaken  their  heads,  she 
would  not  let  herself  be  discouraged. 

She  stopped  for  just  a  minute  to  call  on  old  Mrs. 
Sayers,  who  was  deaf  and  lame,  and  lived  alone  with 
her  six  big  cats.  When  she  told  the  old  lady  what  she 
was  trying  to  do,  she  had  nodded  approvingly. 

"You've  got  one  of  the  best  farms  round  these  parts," 
said  Mrs.  Sayers.  "Just  you  keep  going,  and  some  day 
you'll  be  riding  in  your  automobile,"  and  she  laughed 
shrilly  at  her  own  words.  She  had  called  after  Mrs. 
Currier  when  she  was  driving  on:  "Stop  here  on  your 
way  back,  and  I'll  make  you  a  cup  of  tea." 

All  the  afternoon  the  old  lady  sat  by  her  window 
knitting  and  chuckling  to  herself.  It  was  fast  growing 
dark  before  she  heard  the  sound  of  wheels  again,  and 
Mrs.  Currier's  voice  saying:  "I  won't  come  in.  It's 
late  now,  and  I've  got  a  lot  to  do  when  I  get  home." 

"Did  you  get  your  money?"  asked  the  woman. 
"No?  Well,  that's  too  bad.  You  just  come  in.  I've 
got  something  to  say." 

Mrs.  Currier  reluctantly  hitched  old  Jerry  and  came 


ONE  WAY  OUT  89 

into  the  cozy  sitting-room  where  six  cats  were  peace- 
fully sleeping  on  the  sofa  and  behind  the  stove. 

"Why  wouldn't  Eben  Simonds  lend  you  the  five  hun- 
dred ?"  the  old  lady  asked  abruptly.  "He's  got  so 
much  money  he  doesn't  know  what  to  do  with  it." 

"I  don't  know,  I'm  sure/'  said  Mrs.  Currier  slowly. 
"He  said  he'd  have  to  have  ten  per  cent,  and  he  seemed 
quite  indignant  when  I  told  him  I  wouldn't  pay  over 
six." 

Again  the  little  old  lady  laughed  shrilly.  "I  know 
what's  the  matter,"  she  said.  "They  all  know  that  you 
and  your  husband  are  hard  up,  and  they  think  they'll 
take  advantage.  But  business  is  business,  and  six  per 
cent  is  business.  Well,  Lucy  Currier,  I've  always  ad- 
mired your  pluck.  You  haven't  had  a  fair  chance,  and 
I  want  to  see  you  have  it  and  win  out.  I'm  going  to 
lend  you  that  money  at  six  per  cent,  and  I'm  not  doing 
you  a  favor,  either.  The  bank  only  pays  me  four  per 
cent.  Any  day  next  week  that  you'll  come  and  get 
me,  we'll  go  over  to  Ozark  and  have  this  fixed  up.  And 
don't  you  tell  a  living  soul  where  you  got  the  money." 

The  rest  of  the  way  home  Mrs.  Currier  was  saying  to 
herself:  "If  I  hadn't  started  out  to  get  that  money 
Mrs.  Sayers  never  would  have  offered  to  lend  it.  I 
guess  it  pays  to  try." 

All  that  winter  the  Currier  household  was  a  changed 


90  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

place.  As  John  said:  "Even  the  roosters  crow  a  little 
louder." 

John's  sign  had  been  hung  out,  and  in  spite  of  the  bad 
weather  and  the  light  travel,  hardly  a  day  passed  that 
somebody  did  not  stop  for  "a  drink' '  or  " something  to 
eat."  Mrs.  Currier  had  figured  out  that  a  cup  of  coffee 
cost  her  only  one  cent,  and  that  by  selling  it  for  five 
she  made  a  profit  of  four  cents.  Often  she  was  asked  to 
fill  a  thermos  bottle,  and  to  pack  up  some  sandwiches. 
By  the  first  of  June  she  had  cleared  thirty  dollars. 

She  wrote  to  Mr.  Hayes:  " Perhaps  that  won't  seem 
much  to  you,  but  it  will  pay  the  first  year's  interest  on 
that  five  hundred  dollars."  And  he  had  replied:  "I'm 
proud  of  you.  Only  you  aren't  charging  enough.  Coffee 
like  yours  is  worth  more  than  five  cents.  Try  asking 
eight  cents."  But  Mrs.  Currier  said  it  didn't  seem 
right,  and  kept  to  her  first  price. 

With  June  came  the  really  busy  days.  Mr.  Currier 
had  been  obliged  to  hire  a  strong  young  man  to  help 
him  with  the  spring  and  summer  work.  Mrs.  Currier 
and  the  boys  had  every  minute  taken  up  with  the  house- 
work and  serving  strangers.  Occasionally,  somebody 
would  leave  the  stage  and  ask  to  be  put  up  over  night, 
and  this  always  meant  a  dollar.  "And  it's  cheap  at 
that,"  said  one  man. 

"Huh,  anybody  could  do  what  Lucy  Currier  is  doing," 


ONE  WAY  OUT  91 

said  one  of  the  neighbors.  But  not  everybody  would 
have  planned  so  carefully,  nor  worked  so  patiently  as 
she.  She  had  made  it  a  rule  from  the  first  not  to  sell 
any  food  or  drink  that  was  not  as  good  as  she  could  make 
it.  Consequently,  no  one  who  had  eaten  at  her  house 
could  say  that  she  was  not  an  expert  cook.  Everybody 
wanted  to  stop  there  again.  Even  the  Curriers'  spring 
water  seemed  a  little  clearer  and  a  little  colder  than 
anybody  else's. 

During  the  winter  at  school  John  and  Alphonse  had 
told  some  of  the  other  boys  about  the  raspberry  cuttings 
that  they  were  going  to  plant.  Most  of  the  boys  laughed 
at  the  idea,  but  one  of  them  seemed  much  interested. 

"Say,  we've  got  a  lot  of  blackberries  in  one  of  our 
pastures,"  he  said.  "We  don't  do  anything  with  them. 
Do  you  suppose  we  could  make  some  money  if  we  canned 
them?" 

"Shouldn't  wonder,"  said  John.  "A  man  that  knows 
all  about  farms  said  that  nothing  good  to  eat  ought  ever 
to  be  wasted.  We're  going  to  make  our  grapes  and  rasp- 
berries  into  shrub,  jam,  and  jelly,  and  sell  it." 

So  the  boy  took  the  suggestion  home,  and  to  his  sur- 
prise his  father  said:  "Yes,  that  is  a  good  idea.  I've 
always  thought  that  something  ought  to  be  done  with 
those  blueberries,  and  with  the  blackberries,  too.  I'll 
let  you  have  all  you  can  make  on  them,  only  you'll  have 


92  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

to  do  all  the  work.     If  your  mother  helps  you,  of  course 
you  must  divide  the  profits  with  her." 

When  late  fall  came  the  Curriers'  new  barn  was  up, 
and  the  family  felt  that  better  days  had  indeed  come  to 
stay.  One  night  Mr.  Currier  said  to  his  wife:  "I  hate 
to  let  Frank  go" — this  was  their  hired  man.  "He's  a 
good  worker  and  he  needs  the  money,  but  I  can't  afford 
to  keep  him  all  winter." 

"What  Mr.  Hayes  wrote  in  his  last  letter  made  me 
think  of  Frank,"  remarked  Mrs.  Currier.  "You  remem- 
ber he  said:  'You  must  pass  along  the  lift  that  I  have 
tried  to  give  you.  Help  somebody  else  to  be  brave  and 
to  find  a  way  out,  and  you  will  be  making  the  world 
happier  and  richer.'  It  almost  looks  to  me  as  if  we 
ought  to  pass  some  help  along  to  Frank,  but  I  don't 
know  just  how.  It  seems  he  is  the  youngest  of  his  fam- 
ily, and  the  oldest  brother  managed  it  so  that  when  their 
father  died,  the  farm  came  to  him,  and  there  was  no 
place  for  Frank." 

It  was  Mr.  Currier  who  finally  solved  the  problem. 
He  had  stopped  at  Hiram  Johnson's  one  day,  and  at 
supper  said:  "Hiram's  rheumatism  is  worse,  but  he 
seems  to  be  making  money.  He  made  over  two  hundred 
dollars  this  summer,  and  has  a  lot  of  orders  for  Christ-  ■ 
mas.  He  makes  a  complete  barn,  one  wagon,  two  horses, 
two  cows,  a  dog,  and  some  hens,  and  sells  them  for  seven 


ONE  WAY  OUT  93 

dollars.  He  has  orders  for  seven  of  those  besides  other 
things.  But  he  needs  somebody  to  look  after  the  house 
and  keep  it  clean.  He  said  he  couldn't  afford  to  pay 
anybody,  but  he  could  give  room  and  board.  So  I  was 
wondering;  Frank,  if  you  wouldn't  take  the  job.  After 
snow  comes  and  I  begin  to  cut  timber  I  can  give  you 
work;  but  why  don't  you  take  this  in  the  meantime?' 

"What  did  father  mean  by  wanting  Frank  to  do 
housework?"  asked  John  of  his  mother  that  evening. 

"Housework  is  just  as  much  a  man's  work  as  it  is  a 
woman's/'  she  replied.  "It  won't  hurt  Frank  a  bit — 
ought  to  do  him  good;  and;  anyway,  it  means  a  chance 
to  earn  his  living." 

So  Frank  became  Hiram's  helper,  for  he  had  the  right 
kind  of  determination.  At  Christmas  time  Mrs.  Currier 
vvrote  Mr.  Hayes: 

"Frank  can  make  just  as  good  griddle-cakes  as  I,  and 
i  think  we  have  helped  him  out  a  little.  By  another 
year  perhaps  we  can  keep  him  through  the  winter.'3 

Mr.  Hayes  always  thinks  of  the  Curriers  as  one  of  his 
successful  experiments.     Do  you  know  why  ? 


BEING  POOR 

"If  only  we  weren't  so  poor!"  wailed  Harriet  to  her 
mother  one  day  after  school.  "Just  the  minute  the 
girls  find  that  I  live  on  Sheafe  Street,  they  act  queerly. 
I've  asked  five  or  six  girls  down  to  see  me,  but  none  of 
them  come." 

Mrs.  Johnson's  heart  ached  for  her  daughter,  but  her 
-voice  was  courageous,  as  she  said:  "The  girls  will  soon 
learn  that  you  are  just  as  respectable  and  just  as  good  a 
friend,  if  you  are  poor  and  live  on  a  back  street.  You 
must  have  patience,  dear." 

Harriet  began  to  set  the  table  for  supper  and  said 
nothing  more,  but  her  mother  noticed  that  there  were 
tears  in  her  eyes.  She  winked  them  away  quickly,  how- 
ever, at  the  sound  of  her  brother's  whistle.  Harriet 
admired  her  sixteen-year-old  brother  Paul  more  than 
any  one  except  her  mother,  and  she  would  not  for  the 
world  have  had  him  think  her  "one  of  those  grown-up 
cry-babies"  that  he  often  spoke  of. 

At  supper  Paul  had  a  piece  of  good  news  that  proved 
quite  exciting. 

94 


BEING  POOR  95 

"Mr.  Elson,  one  of  the  members  of  the  firm,  called 
me  into  his  office  today  and  said  some  nice  things.  He 
thinks  that  I  have  the  making  of  a  good  architect  in  me, 
and  he  says  it  is  too  bad  that  I  can't  go  to  a  technical  ' 
school  for  several  years.  I  told  him  that  was  impossible. 
Then  I  explained  that  father  was  an  architect  and  had 
injured  his  spine  in  a  railroad  accident,  and  that  we  all 
had  to  go  into  the  country  to  live  until  he  died.  Hon- 
estlv,  mother,  after  I  had  told  him  about  vou  and  Har- 
riet  and  what  I  wanted  to  do,  he  couldn't  have  treated 
me  better  if  I  had  been  one  of  his  partners." 

"Every  man  that  is  worth  while  has  only  respect  for  any 
boy  who  is  trying  to  do  his  best,"  said  his  mother  gently. 

Harriet's  eyes  glowed,  but  all  that  she  said  was:  " Isn't 
that  great,  Paul?" 

That  evening  when  Paul  was  drawing  at  the  kitchen 
table,  after  Harriet  had  gone  to  bed,  his  mother  said: 
"I  want  your  advice  about  a  little  plan  that  I  have  in 
mind.  It  seems  that  the  girls  in  Harriet's  room  are  just 
as  silly  and  vain  as  girls  often  are,  and  the}'  are  making 
poor  Harriet  unhappy.  You  see,  this  isn't  the  nicest 
part  of  town,  and  I  judge  by  what  I  have  seen,  that  most 
of  the  families  on  this  street  are  so  poor  and  discouraged 
that  they  don't  care  how  thev  or  their  houses  look.  The 
girls  of  Harriet's  age  at  school  assume  that  because  we 
live  here,  we  are  like  our  neighbors." 


96  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"What's  the  matter  with  those  girls,  anyway?"  said 
Paul. 

"Oh,  they're  only  natural,"  his  mother  replied.  "We 
are  in  a  way  judged  by  the  company  that  we  keep,  and 
by  living  among  shiftless  people  we  seem  to  make  our- 
selves one  of  them.  If  we  weren't  so  poor  we  shouldn't 
be  living  here,  but  for  the  present  here  we  must  stay. 

"Now,  my  plan  is  this:  We  must  try  to  make  our 
neighbors  more  tidy  and  self-respecting  by  showing 
them  that  to  be  poor  doesn't  mean  tumbled-down  fences, 
disorderly  yards,  and  woe-begone  faces.  This  is  only  a 
short  street,  and  it  could  be  made  attractive  if  all  the 
houses  and  yards  were  well  cared  for.  There  is  no  street 
in  town  that  has  finer  trees  than  the  big  elms  that  shade 
this.    Now  if  we  can  live  up  to  these  elms,  nobody  can 


scorn  us." 


"But  how  can  we  do  anything  with  these  people? 
We  don't  even  know  most  of  them  by  name,  and  I'm 
sure  that  if  Harriet  chums  with  these  girls  the  other 
girls  will  only  look  down  on  her  the  more." 

As  Mrs.  Johnson  explained  her  plan  to  Paul,  he  be- 
came as  eager  as  only  a  big  healthy  boy  can  be.  The  next 
night  on  his  way  home  from  work  he  stopped  to  see  the 
owner  of  their  house,  who  also  owned  most  of  the  other 
houses  on  Sheafe  Street. 

I'm  Paul  Johnson,"  he  said  to  the  weary-looking 


ttjy. 


BEING  POOR  97 

man  before  him.  "Our  house  at  15  Sheaf e  Street  is 
badly  in  need  of  paint,  and  I  wanted  to  say  that  if  you 
will  furnish  the  paint  I  will  do  the  work.  I  think  the 
fence  ought  to  be  painted,  too." 

The  owner  smiled  a  little  as  he  said:  "It  would  be  only 
a  waste  of  money  to  do  that.  If  I  painted  your  house  I 
should  have  to  paint  them  all,  and  I'd  get  no  thanks  for 
it.  None  of  the  houses  down  there  are  good  investments. 
The  tenants  are  nearly  always  behind  in  their  rent,  and 
when  a  family  moves  out  the  house  looks  as  if  it  had  been 
through  a  fire." 

"Well,  sir,"  and  Paul  drew  himself  up  proudly.  "We 
are  poor  but  we  want  to  be  proud  of  our  street  and  our 
house.  Wouldn't  it  help  you  to  get  better  tenants  if 
you  had  one  neat-looking  house?" 

It  wasn't  so  much  what  Paul  said  as  his  clean,  straight- 
forward manner  that  made  an  impression  on  his  landlord. 

"Takes  some  pluck  for  a  poor  young  fellow  like  that 
to  come  here  with  such  a  request,"  said  the  man  to  him- 
self. He  agreed  to  think  it  over  and  let  the  Johnsons 
know  later. 

They  heard  nothing,  but  on  Friday  four  cans  of  white 
paint  and  one  can  of  green  were  left  at  the  house.  So  on 
Saturday  afternoon  Paul  began  his  work.  The  house 
was  a  low  cottage,  and  with  one  ladder,  which  the  owner 
of  the  house  lent  him,  he  was  able  to  get  along.    It  took 


98  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

three  Saturdays  to  paint  the  house,  and  two  evenings  to 
paint  the  blinds. 

"It  certainly  does  set  the  house  off  to  paint  it  up/' 
said  Paul. 

After  the  green  blinds  were  on,  the  little  cottage  was 
conspicuous  the  whole  length  of  the  short  street,  and 
the  report  was  passed  along  from  house  to  house  that  the 
Johnsons  "had  money"  and  had  bought  their  house. 
Mrs.  Johnson  laughed  when  one  of  her  neighbors  called 
and  asked  if  this  were  true. 

"Bless  you,  no,"  she  said.  "We're  too  poor  to  do 
more  than  pay  our  rent  promptly  and  get  a  bite  to  eat. 
But  this  is  our  home,  and  we  want  to  make  it  as  attrac- 
tive as  possible." 

After  a  little,  Harriet  fell  into  the  spirit  of  the  under- 
taking. 

"It's  almost  as  much  fun  as  a  game,"  she  said  one 
Saturday,  as  she  helped  Paul  set  out  some  honeysuckle 
vines.  Poor  as  they  were,  they  had  decided  to  invest 
five  dollars  in  some  shrubbery  and  vines.  By  going  to 
the  nursery  for  the  plants  they  got  more  for  their  money 
than  they  expected.  After  they  had  planted  woodbine 
at  the  corner  of  the  house  and  had  started  honeysuckles 
along  the  fence,  there  was  one  set  of  roots  left  over.  So, 
in  the  evening,  Mrs.  Johnson  called  on  one  of  her  most 
untidy  neighbors. 


BEING  POOR  99 


(c 


I  won't  stop/'  she  said.  "I  just  wanted  to  ask  if 
you  wouldn't  like  to  have  a  honeysuckle  vine  started  up 
over  your  piazza.  We  have  some  extra  roots,  and  Paul 
will  be  glad  to  set  them  out  for  you." 

The  woman  assented  in  a  half-hearted  manner,  saying: 
"Things  don't  seem  to  grow  round  here.  I  don't  know 
why.    It  isn't  much  like  the  country." 

After  a  few  minutes'  conversation,  Mrs.  Johnson  found 
her  way  to  the  woman's  heart  by  talking  with  her  about 
the  farm  in  a  distant  State,  where  she  had  lived  as  a 
girl. 

Little  by  little  the  street  began  to  show  a  respectful 
attitude  toward  the  new  family,  and  two  of  the  neigh- 
bors made  determined  efforts  to  repair  their  fences  and 
clean  up  their  yards.  One  of  the  most  forlorn  houses  on 
the  street  was  owned  by  a  little  old  woman  who  lived 
alone.  When  Paul  one  day,  at  his  mother's  suggestion, 
knocked  at  her  back  door  and  asked  if  he  might  not  cut 
her  grass  and  mend  her  fence,  she  shut  the  door  in  his 
face.  But  several  weeks  later,  just  as  they  were  at  sup- 
per she  came  to  their  back  door  and  asked  to  see  "the 
young  man  with  the  honest  blue  eyes."  Mrs.  Johnson 
made  her  come  in  and  gave  her  a  cup  of  tea. 

"I  haven't  always  been  a  poor,  cross  old  woman,  and 
I'm  ashamed  of  the  way  I  treated  your  boy.  I  haven't 
any  money  to  pay  him,  but  if  you'll  let  me  do  some  knit- 


100  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

ting  for  you,  I  shall  be  glad  to  have  him  clean  up  my 
yard." 

The  inside  of  their  house  the  Johnsons  had  finished 
as  tastefully  as  possible  without  buying  anything  new. 

"We'll  always  keep  our  rooms  just  as  we  used  to  before 
we  were  so  poor/'  said  Mrs.  Johnson,  "  and  we  can  make 
believe  we  have  a  lot  of  friends  who  may  call  on  us  at 
any  time."  So  the  rooms  were  always  bright  and  sunny 
and  cheerful.  Both  Harriet  and  Paul  insisted  that  they 
would  rather  sit  in  the  kitchen  evenings,  but  Mrs.  John- 
son had  her  way  and  every  night  after  the  dishes  were 
washed,  they  lighted  the  parlor  lamp  and  sat  around  it 
until  bedtime. 

One  day  Paul  asked  an  office  friend  out  to  supper 
and  to  spend  the  evening.  His  mother  had  welcomed 
the  idea,  but  said:  "Just  remember,  Paul,  that  we  are 
really  poor  and  must  not  pretend  anything  else.  I  can't 
get  up  a  fancy  supper.  We  will  have  what  we  should 
have  anyway,  and  there  will  be  plenty  of  it." 

"Oh,  mother,"  said  Harriet,  as  she  helped  set  the 
table,  "shouldn't  we  apologize  for  not  having  anything 
better?" 

"No,  Harriet.  An  apology  should  never  be  made 
except  when  a  person  has  done  something  rude  or  un- 
kind. If  Paul's  friend  likes  us  and  enjoys  himself,  he 
will  be  glad  to  come  again." 


BEING  POOR  101 

It  was  only  corn  chowder,  bread-and-butter  sand- 
wiches, hot  chocolate,  and  sponge-cake  that  they  had  for 
supper  that  night.  But  there  was  such  fun  relating 
school  and  office  experiences  that  even  Harriet  forgot 
she  had  wanted  to  apologize. 

After  that,  once  every  week  the  Johnsons  had  what 
they  laughingly  called  their  "At  Home"  evening.  "We'll 
all  understand,"  said  the  mother,  "that  every  Thursday 
either  or  both  of  you  may  have  a  friend  to  supper  and  to 
spend  the  evening.  You  won't  need  to  ask  me  before- 
hand.   I  shall  always  be  ready." 

Every  Thursday,  when  Harriet  got  home  from  school, 
she  changed  her  school  dress  for  her  second-best  challis 
and  put  on  her  long,  white  muslin  apron  that  tied  over 
the  shoulders  in  little  bows.  Her  mother  put  on  a  special 
dress  and  her  best  white  apron.  Many  Thursdays  there 
were  no  guests,  and  the  three  had  their  "At  Home''  all 
to  themselves.  They  either  played  games  or  planned 
what  new  thing  they  could  do  to  help  the  street.  And 
always  they  had  some  simple  refreshments.  "It  looks 
silly,"  said  Harriet,  "to  go  to  all  this  trouble  just  for  us." 

"I  don't  agree  with  you,"  said  the  mother.  "No 
trouble  is  too  great  for  me  to  take  for  you  and  Paul. 
And  it  is  a  greater  pleasure  to  me  than  you  can  know  to 
have  a  quiet,  happy  evening  like  this." 

"Harriet,"  Paul  had  said  the  first  Thursday,  "let's 


102  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

practise  doing  this  refreshment  act  right.  I'll  do  it  this 
time,  and  you  the  next.  Some  day  we  may  have  to  pass 
refreshments  to  a  celebrity,  and  I  should  like  to  know 
how  to  manage  without  spilling  the  coffee  all  over  myself 
and  the  fair  lady." 

"I  think  we  are  making  some  progress  with  our  neigh- 
bors/' said  Airs.  Johnson  one  day.  "Mrs.  Hawkes  came 
to  the  back  door  yesterday  to  borrow  some  sugar.  It 
was  just  four  o'clock,  and  the  parlor  looked  so  cozy  and 
cheerful  that  I  made  her  come  in  and  sit  down  while  I 
made  her  a  cup  of  tea.  I  used  my  best  china  cups  and 
toasted  her  some  crackers,  and  we  had  a  pleasant  chat. 

"She  asked  me  if  I  was  expecting  company — I  was  so 
'dressed  up'  and  my  parlor  looked  so  fine.  I  said  no,  I 
thought  more  of  my  own  family  than  I  did  of  any  com- 
pany that  I  could  have,  and  that  I  wanted  my  house 
and  myself  to  look  as  attractive  as  possible  all  the  time. 
Today  I  notice  that  she  has  been  cleaning  her  parlor. 
She  has  taken  down  those  cheap  lace  curtains,  and  I  hope 
she  won't  put  them  up  again." 

Mrs.  Hawkes  had  a  back-door  calling  acquaintance 
with  all  the  families  in  the  street,  and  soon  every  woman 
knew  that  Mrs.  Johnson  used  her  parlor  every  day  and 
made  tea  out  of  a  copper  teapot  that  had  a  lamp  under 
it.  After  a  little,  other  neighbors  began  to  come  to  Mrs. 
Johnson's  back  door  at  about  four  o'clock,  and  always 


BEING  POOR  103 

there  was  a  cup  of  tea  with  sometimes  a  bit  of  cake,  but 
often  only  toasted  crackers,  and  always  it  was  served  in 
the  parlor. 

Mrs.  Johnson  took  pains  to  return  every  call,  and 
always  went  to  the  front  door.  She  was  so  sweet  and 
sympathetic  that  the  neighbors  were  really  glad  to  see 
her.  Before  six  months  had  passed  it  was  Mrs.  Johnson 
who  was  consulted  when  Mrs.  Mahoney  wanted  to  buy 
a  new  chair  for  her  parlor,  or  Mrs.  Evans  was  going  to 
give  a  party  and  did  not  know  what  games  to  play  or 
what  refreshments  to  serve.  Front  yards  and  back 
yards  were  cleaned  up  and  fences  were  repaired  all  along 
the  street.  As  one  man  said:  "If  a  young  fellow  like 
that  Paul  Johnson,  who  works  hard  all  day,  isn't  too  tired 
to  slick  up,  I  guess  some  of  us  old  folks  aren't  either." 

One  Thursday  evening  they  had  no  guests  and  were 
not  expecting  any,  but  at  eight  o'clock  the  door-bell 
rang.  Paul  went  to  the  door,  and  Harriet  and  her  mother 
were  astonished  to  hear  him  greet  some  man  cordially 
and  invite  him  in.  In  a  moment  he  was  saying:  "Mother, 
this  is  the  owner  of  our  house,  Air.  Adams.  Mr.  Adams, 
this  is  my  sister  Harriet." 

Both  Harriet  and  her  mother  shook  hands  with  the 
tall,  thin  man  who  had  a  face  that  looked  as  if  it  had 
forgotten  how  to  smile.  After  a  few  minutes  of  general 
conversation,  Mr.  Adams  said:  "My  agent  tells  me  that 


104  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

you  are  one  of  the  best  tenants  we  ever  had,  and  I  just 
dropped  in  to  inquire  if  any  repairing  was  needed.  You 
may  not  realize  it,  but  there  are  not  many  families  that 
take  as  much  care  of  another  person's  house  as  you  do. 
Tenants  often  seem  to  feel  that  a  landlord  is  a  heartless 
person,  and  they  try  to  get  even  with  him  by  letting  the 
house  and  yard  go  to  ruin.  I  feel  sure  that  most  land- 
lords want  to  do  the  square  thing.  At  least  I  want  to 
show  how  much  I  appreciate  your  influence  in  this 
neighborhood. " 

"We  are  getting  to  enjoy  our  neighbors/'  said  Mrs. 
Johnson.    "Many  of  them  were  only  discouraged." 

"What  they  evidently  needed  was  your  example/' 
the  man  replied.  "Most  of  the  families  here  are  not 
really  poor.  Probably  half  the  men  on  this  street  earn 
at  least  twenty  dollars  a  week,  and  none  of  them  pay 
over  fifteen  dollars  a  month  for  rent.  I  long  ago  dis- 
covered that  it  is  not  always  the  people  who  look  and 
act  poor  that  have  the  least  money." 

Harriet  excused  herself  for  interrupting,  and  said: 
"Mother,  which  would  Mr.  Adams  prefer,  chocolate  or 
tea?" 

"Oh,  don't  trouble,  please/'  said  the  man  in  embar- 
rassment. 

It  took  little  urging,  however,  to  get  him  to  say  that 
he  preferred  tea,  so  while  Mrs.  Johnson  and  the  landlord 


BEING  POOR  105 

discussed  wall-papers,  Paul  rilled  the  alcohol-lamp  under 
the  teapot  and  Harriet  made  the  tea.  When  the  best 
china  cups  and  the  cake  had  been  brought  out,  Harriet 
signalled  to  Paul  to  serve,  but  his  eyes  said:   "No." 

So  Harriet  made  believe  that  the  landlord  was  a 
real  celebrity,  and  served  her  mother  and  their  guest  as 
gracefully  as  if  she  had  done  it  many  times  before. 

As  the  door  closed  behind  their  landlord,  Mrs.  John- 
son said  laughingly:  "It  must  have  been  that  cup  of  tea 
that  made  him  say  he  would  repaper  three  rooms  for  us 
and  let  us  select  the  paper.  At  first  he  spoke  of  doing 
only  two." 

And  it  may  have  been  that  cup  of  tea  which  finally 
won  Harriet  the  girl  friends  that  she  so  much  craved. 
For  one  evening  the  next  week  Mrs.  Adams  and  her 
daughter  Helen  called,  and  Harriet  was  invited  to  spend 
Saturday  afternoon  at  their  home. 

"The  Johnsons  don't  seem  like  poor  people/'  said 
Mrs.  Adams  to  her  husband. 

"They  haven't  always  been  poor,"  he  replied,  "and 
they  won't  always  be.  That  boy  Paul  has  the  right  kind 
of  stuff  in  him,  and  he  has  the  right  kind  of  mother, 
and  some  day  they  will  be  able  to  afford  to  pay  more 
than  fifteen  dollars  a  month  rent.  I  wish  there  were  more 
people  like  them;  they  never  complain  of  their  poverty 
and  never  apologize." 


XI 

WASTED  OLD  PEOPLE 

Miss  Farwell  had  called  on  all  her  pupils  except 
Walter  Lewis;  she  dreaded  going  to  his  home,  for  she 
was  afraid  the  family  were  poor.  But  one  cold,  snowy 
Saturday  he  had  driven  down  the  mountain  for  her  in 
his  sleigh,  and  she  had  not  had  the  heart  to  refuse  him. 
It  was  a  slow,  uphill  ride  most  of  the  way,  and  dinner 
was  ready  when  they  reached  the  little,  low  farmhouse 
on  the  steep  hillside.  She  was  greeted  eagerly  by  Mrs. 
Lewis,  and  before  they  sat  down  to  the  table  the  aged 
grandfather  and  grandmother  and  an  invalid  aunt  came 
and  shook  hands  with  her  shyly. 

In  a  soft,  mellow  voice  the  grandfather  said  " grace," 
and  then  Walter,  his  mother,  and  Miss  Farwell  talked. 
The  old  people  and  the  invalid  ate  little  and  said  little, 
but  beamed  at  the  school-teacher  until  she  felt  almost 
uncomfortable. 

"Yes,  we  dread  the  winters,"  said  Mrs.  Lewis,  as  she 
and  Miss  Farwell  lingered  over  their  tea  after  the  others 
had  been  excused.    "Since  father  is  too  old  to  get  about 

106 


WASTED  OLD  PEOPLE  107 

much,  Walter  and  I  have  all  the  work  to  do;  but  we 
don't  mind  that.  Father,  mother,  and  sister  Mary 
haven't  strength  enough  to  do  any  hard  work,  and  that 
means  that  most  of  the  time  they  must  sit  around  read- 
ing or  doing  nothing.  They  would  gladly  help  me  if 
they  could.  In  summer  they  have  the  flower-garden, 
and  there  isn't  a  finer  one  in  this  part  of  the  country, 
and  of  course  in  winter  we  have  a  few  house-plants,  but 
it  doesn't  take  much  time  to  care  for  those." 

Like  every  one  else  who  is  young  and  strong,  Miss 
Farwell  had  never  realized  that  when  old  people  little 
by  little  lose  their  strength  time  hangs  heavily  on  their 
hands.  After  dinner,  while  Walter  and  his  mother  were 
doing  the  kitchen  work  and  the  barn  chores,  the  grand- 
mother showed  Miss  Farwell  the  scrap-books  of  poetiy 
and  recipes  that  she  had  made  from  newspaper  clippings. 
"These  aren't  of  any  account,"  she  said,  "but  they  give 
me  something  to  do." 

When  they  had  finished  the  scrap-books,  she  went  to 
the  bedroom  off  the  sitting-room  and  brought  out  some 
heavy  old  encyclopedias.  "This  isn't  of  much  use 
either,"  she  said  in  a  rueful  voice,  as  she  turned  the 
pages  and  showed  pressed  ferns,  bits  of  vines,  maple- 
leaves,  and  different  kinds  of  grasses.  Old  Mrs.  Lewis 
was  so  deaf  that  all  Miss  Farwell  could  do  was  to  smile 
and  look  interested.    At  her  expression  of  genuine  amaze- 


108  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

ment  at  the  many  different  grasses;  the  old  grandfather 
drew  his  chair  nearer. 

"Perhaps  you  didn't  realize  there  were  so  many. 
Most  folks  don't/'  he  said,  and  explained  to  her  the 
names  of  each  kind  and  where  it  grew. 

" That's  simply  fascinating/'  said  Miss  Farwell.  "I 
should  like  to  be  able  to  remember  it  all  to  tell  my  pupils. 
Do  you  suppose  your  wife  would  lend  me  these  speci- 
mens to  take  to  school?  I  would  be  ever  so  careful  of 
them  and  send  them  back  by  Walter." 

When  Mr.  Lewis  put  his  lips  to  his  wife's  ear  and  ex- 
plained what  Miss  Farwell  wanted,  the  old  lady  became 
quite  excited  in  her  pleasure. 

"And  if  you  would  be  willing  to  tell  me  about  them 
again,  I'll  write  it  down,"  said  Miss  Farwell. 

"I  should  be  glad  to,"  said  the  old  man  eagerly.  "But 
you  leave  them  for  Walter  to  bring  and  I'll  write  out  the 
descriptions." 

Miss  Farwell  assented,  for  she  was  beginning  to  real- 
ize what  a  hard  kind  of  life  it  was  for  people  who  had  been 
strong  and  active  in  their  younger  years,  to  spend  their 
old  age  in  idleness.  And  she  felt  that  old  Mr.  Lewis 
would  welcome  the  task  of  writing  out  the  descriptions. 
"I  think  I  should  go  insane  if  I  were  in  their  places,"  she 
said  to  herself. 

The  winter  days  were  short  on  the  mountainside,  and 


WASTED  OLD  PEOPLE  109 

at  four  o'clock  when  the  lamps  were  lighted  Mr.  Lewis 
said:  " Won't  you  come  into  Mary's  room  and  visit  with 
her  awhile?  It's  such  a  treat  to  have  you  that  we  all 
want  a  share." 

The  little  bedroom  was  warmed  by  an  air-tight  wood- 
stove  and  the  invalid  sat  before  it  wrapped  in  a  dressing- 
gown. 

"I  want  to  show  you  my  bird  diary/'  she  said.  "I 
never  was  much  interested  in  birds  until  I  fell  sick  and 
stayed  sick,  and  then  I  just  had  to  do  something.  Prob- 
ably you  don't  realize  what  a  blessing  it  is  to  have  work 
to  do.  I  use  all  the  old  pieces  of  cloth  that  I  can  get  for 
rags  to  braid  into  rugs,  and  I  knit  all  our  stockings,  but 
we  don't  wear  out  many,  and  we  don't  need  any  more 
rugs,  so  it's  hard  to  know  what  to  do.  If  it  wasn't  for 
my  diary,  I  should  be  pretty  unhappy.  I've  got  so  that 
I  know  all  the  birds  that  live  round  here  and  those  that 
travel  through  and  just  stop  for  a  little  while.  Every 
evening  I  note  down  those  I've  seen,  what  they  were 
doing,  and  the  like.  I'm  no  hand  at  drawing,  but  when 
I  see  a  new  bird  I  make  a  rough  sketch  so  that  I  shan't 
forget  how  it  looked." 

"Why,  Miss  Lewis,  I  think  this  diary  is  perfectly  won- 
derful!" exclaimed  Miss  Farwell.  "I  never  dreamed 
there  were  so  many  birds  in  this  part  of  the  country,  and 
I  don't  see  how  you  learned  to  know  them." 


110  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"In  summer  I  lie  out  under  the  trees  and  in  the  edge 
of  the  woods  for  hours,  and  in  winter  I  scatter  crumbs 
on  my  window-sills  and  on  the  ground,  and  they  come 
here  by  the  dozen." 

"Well,"  laughed  Miss  Farwell,  "I've  just  been  trying 
to  borrow  your  mother's  collection  of  grasses,  and  if  I 
dared  I  should  ask  to  borrow  this  diary  to  read  to  my 
children." 

"I  shouldn't  like  to  part  with  it,"  said  the  invalid, 
"but  won't  you  let  me  copy  out  what  you  want  and 
send  it  to  you?    It  would  give  me  something  to  do." 

The  next  day  Miss  Farwell  wrote  to  her  mother  this 
letter: 

Dear  Mother: 

Please  give  me  some  ideas.  I  want  to  find  some- 
thing for  two  old  people,  a  grandfather  and  a  grand- 
mother, and  a  middle-aged  invalid  to  do.  They  are 
poor  and  would  love  to  have  some  kind  of  work,  but 
there's  nothing  to  do.  I  never  thought  of  it  before, 
but  it  seems  to  me  that  old  age  is  a  dreadful  waste. 
I  think  old  people  ought  to  have  something  to  do. 

Please  write  at  once. 

Lovingly, 

Amy. 

P.  S.     The  middle-aged  invalid  knits  and  braids 


rugs. 


WASTED  OLD  PEOPLE  111 

Then  Miss  Farwell  wrote  a  long  letter  to  one  of  her 
college  professors,  asking  him  if  he  could  suggest  some 
way  in  which  she  might  help  Walter's  family.  In  a  few 
days  answers  came  to  both  letters.     Her  professor  wrote : 

Perhaps  you  would  like  to  know  how  we  have 
made  the  old  people  hi  our  home  useful  and  there- 
fore happy. 

My  mother  was  always  a  busy  woman,  but  after 
my  father  died  she  came  to  live  with  me,  and  of 
course  we  thought  that  she  ought  to  do  no  house- 
work, and  there  seemed  to  be  nothing  else.  One  day 
she  said  to  me:  "Old  folks  are  just  wasted,  aren't 
they  ?  There  are  just  as  many  hours  in  my  day  as 
in  yours,  but  I  don't  have  an  hour's  work  to  do." 
That  made  me  think;  I  talked  it  over  with  my  wife, 
and  we  agreed  to  find  mother  something  to  occupy 
her  mind  and  her  fingers. 

We  gave  her  all  our  mending  and  plain  sewing, 
and  paid  her  the  $2.50  a  week  that  we  had  been 
paying  a  seamstress.  Then  one  day  she  said: 
"Don't  you  suppose  there  are  some  of  the  other 
professors'  families  that  would  let  me  do  their 
plain  sewing?  You  folks  don't  have  enough  to 
keep  me  busy." 

At  first  it  hurt  our  pride  to  let  the  neighbors  know 


112  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

that  mother  was  working,  but  I  knew  it  was  right 
because  it  made  her  happy  and  useful.  Now  she 
averages  about  ten  dollars  a  week.  She  insists  on 
paying  us  a  few  dollars  each  week  that  she  calls 
"board,"  and  then  she  has  enough  left  to  buy  her 
clothes.  When  you  stop  to  think,  isn't  this  the 
kind  of  independence  you  would  like  to  have  when 
you  are  old? 

Now  as  to  your  problem.  Isn't  there  something 
that  the  old  folks  and  the  invalid  can  make  that 
you  could  help  them  sell?  I  am  interested  in  that 
collection  of  grasses  and  ferns.  Tell  the  old  gentle- 
man that  I  will  pay  him  ten  dollars  for  several 
weeks'  rent  of  it,  so  that  I  can  make  notes  and 
sketches  to  use  in  my  botany  classes.  And  if  the 
invalid  can  write  interestingly  about  the  birds, 
perhaps  I  can  get  some  paper  to  take  a  monthly 
letter  from  her,  and  pay  her  a  few  dollars. 

Miss  Farwell's  eyes  were  glowing  when  she  finished 
the  professor's  letter  and  opened  her  mother's. 

Dear  Daughter: 

I  have  many  times  thought  it  a  great  pity  that 
simply  because  people  grew  old  they  should  have 
nothing  useful  to  do.    I  have  been  thinking  hard  and 


WASTED  OLD   PEOPLE  113 

making  inquiries  since  your  letter  came,  and  I  find 
that  two  of  the  specialty  stores  here  will  take  all 
the  hand-made  baby  things  they  can  get.  Now,  of 
course,  the  grandmother  can  knit,  so  I  am  sending 
you  the  sizes  for  stockings,  mittens,  and  petticoats 
for  children  from  6  months  to  4  years  of  age.  I  am 
also  sending  the  worsted  to  start  on.  If  the  aunt 
can't  knit,  I  think  I  can  get  some  orders  for  braided 
rugs.  If  you  will  send  me  two  or  three  for  specimens 
I  will  show  them  to  as  many  people  as  possible, 
and  take  orders.  Haven't  yet  been  able  to  think 
of  anything  for  the  grandfather. 

Mother. 

Miss  Farwell  sent  a  long  letter  to  Walter's  mother  ex- 
plaining about  the  knitting  and  the  rugs,  and  the  follow- 
ing Monday  Walter  brought  a  note  and  a  pint  bottle 
of  butternut  meats. 

"Grandfather  sent  these  to  you,  Miss  Farwell,"  he 
said.     "The  folks  all  think  you  are  wonderful.'' 

"Oh,  Walter,  I've  just  had  another  idea!  If  you 
have  a  lot  of  butternuts,  why  can't  your  grandfather 
crack  them  and  pack  the  meats  in  little  boxes?  We 
can  send  these  to  the  city  to  sell.  A  person  can  almost 
never  buy  butternut  meats  there.  I'm  sure  they  would 
be  a  success!" 


114  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

And  they  were,  and  so  were  the  stockings,  and  the 
mittens,  and  the  rugs.  The  money  that  the  Lewis  family 
made  would  not  seem  a  large  sum  to  most  people,  but  to 
the  old  folks  it  was  almost  too  good  to  be  true.  And 
best  of  all,  it  made  them  feel  that  they  were  not  wasting 
themselves. 

At  the  spring  vacation,  when  she  went  home,  Miss 
Farwell  and  her  mother  compared  experiences. 

"  Since  you  first  wrote  me  about  the  Lewis  family, 
I've  been  inquiring  into  what  old  people  in  the  city  do 
after  they  get  too  old  to  keep  up  their  regular  work," 
said  her  mother.  "Do  you  remember  the  Simondses? 
You  know  they  are  rather  poor.  Well,  it  seems  that 
Mrs.  Simonds's  mother  lives  with  them.  The  old  lady 
was  extremely  unhappy  at  having  to  be  dependent 
on  her  son,  although  both  he  and  his  wife  were  as 
kind  as  they  could  be  to  her.  One  day  she  said: 
'Why  don't  you  furnish  that  back  bedroom  and  rent 
it,  Ella?' 

"'We  haven't  any  furniture,  and  I  haven't  time  to 
look  out  for  a  lodger,'  was  her  daughter's  reply. 

aA  day  or  two  later  the  old  lady  said:  'I  have  a  plan, 
Ella.  I  want  to  send  for  the  bedroom  furniture  that  I 
stored  down  at  Weymouth,  and  furnish  the  back  bed- 
room with  it.  Then  I  want  you  to  advertise  for  a  roomer 
and  let  me  take  all  the  care  of  the  room.     I'm  perfectly 


WASTED  OLD  PEOPLE  115 

able  to.     That  will  make  me  feel  as  if  I  were  paying  my 
board.' 

"The  old  lady  had  her  way,  and  a  bank  clerk  rented 
the  room.  I  heard  him  say  that  he  had  never  been  so 
comfortable  since  he  left  home.  Everything  is  spotless; 
Ins  bureau  drawers  and  cloeets  smell  of  lavender,  and  his 
slippers  are  always  where  he  can  find  them. 

"That's  how  one  woman  kept  from  wasting  herself. 

"Another  old  lady  has  turned  story-teller.  She  has 
sent  around  letters  to  all  the  families  that  she  knows 
where  there  are  children,  saying  that  for  twenty-five 
cents  an  hour  and  car-fare  she  will  go  to  anybody's  house 
and  tell  the  children  stories.  Or,  if  a  mother  prefers, 
she  may  bring  the  children  to  her  to  be  amused.  She 
always  takes  with  her  a  rag  doll  to  illustrate  one  of  the  . 
stories  that  she  tells,  and  this  doll  has  so  fascinated 
the  children  that  she  now  has  orders  to  make  others 
like  it." 

"Well,"  said  her  daughter,  "I  don't  see  why  old  peo- 
ple aren't  worth  something  besides  just  to  be  cared  for 
and  loved.  I  remember  that  old  lady  Chamberlain  used 
to  say  she  wished  she  could  do  something  besides  making 
holders  and  dish-cloths  for  people  that  didn't  need  them. 
I  suppose  there  are  a  good  many  old  people  who  have 
money  enough  to  live  comfortably  who  would  still  like 
to  feel  that  they  could  use  their  time  to  advantage.     In 


116  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

school  I  am  always  telling  my  pupils  that  time  is  too 
valuable  for  anybody  to  waste,  and  I  should  think  that 
might  apply  to  old  folks  as  well  as  to  young  people. 
Now  that  I  think  of  it,  I  am  going  down  to  see  Mrs. 
Chamberlain  before  I  go  back." 

The  next  day  Miss  Farwell  started  out  to  make  the 
call.  She  rang  the  bell  many  times  but  got  no  response. 
As  she  finally  turned  away,  she  saw  a  little  old  woman 
in  the  door  of  a  house  farther  down  the  street  beckoning 
to  her. 

"Why,  that  looks  like  Mrs.  Chamberlain/ '  she  thought. 
And  it  was.  It  seemed  that  every  week-day  Mrs.  Cham- 
berlain went  to  her  neighbor's  house  to  take  care  of  two 
little  children  while  the  mother  went  to  work,  or  else 
the  mother  brought  the  children  to  her. 

"You  see,"  she  explained  to  Miss  Farwell,  "I'm  well 
and  have  all  the  money  I  need  for  living  expenses,  but 
I  don't  have  enough  to  do.  I  didn't  want  to  waste  time 
and  health,  so  I  tried  to  think  of  some  way  that  I  could 
make  myself  genuinely  useful.  I  discovered  that  Mrs. 
Lane,  whose  husband  is  dead,  could  earn  twice  as  much 
money  by  taking  a  position  in  the  city  as  she  could  by 
doing  sewing  at  home.  So  I  told  her  that  I  would  look 
after  the  children  and  do  the  housework  while  she  was 
gone.  It  works  beautifully.  I  am  helping  her  earn 
enough  to  pay  her  bills;  it  doesn't  cost  me  anything  but 


WASTED  OLD  PEOPLE  117 

time,  and  I'm  sure  this  is  better  than  knitting  to  kill 
the  hours." 

"Well,"  said  Miss  Farwell,  "Pm  going  to  tell  every 
discontented  old  person  that  I  see  to  get  to  work  at 
something  right  away." 


XII 
BEING  RICH 

aWell;  I  wish  I  were  in  his  shoes  !"  said  William,  one  of 
the  errand  boys,  to  another,  as  the  president  of  the  firm 
left  the  office  in  his  fur-lined  overcoat  and  stepped  into 
his  waiting  limousine.  "Do  you  suppose  we'll  ever  own 
our  three  automobiles?"  asked  Henry. 

In  a  few  minutes  the  two  boys  forgot  the  big  pile  of 
letters  they  had  to  stamp  and  seal,  and  earnestly  dis--f 
cussed  what  they  would  do  if  they  were  rich. 

"You  can  just  believe  I  shouldn't  come  into  the 
office  every  day  if  I  had  the  money  that  the  head  of  our 
firm  has/'  was  the  conclusion  that  William  came  to. 

One  of  the  stenographers  who  was  passing  happened 
to  hear  this  last  remark. 

"So  you  think  Mr.  Estabrook  doesn't  need  to  come 
into  the  office  every  day  ?  "  she  asked.  "  That  shows  that 
you  boys  don't  know  yet  what  it  means  to  be  at  the  head 
of  a  firm  like  this.  I  suppose  you  think  all  the  president 
has  to  do  is  to  draw  money  and  spend  it.  Would  you 
believe  me  if  I  said  that  there  isn't  a  person  in  the 

118 


BEING  RICH  119 

whole  office  who  works  as  hard  from  one  year's  end  to 
the  other?  Last  winter,  when  Mr.  Estabrook  was  sick 
abed;  he  had  a  stenographer  and  a  boy  come  out  to  the 
house  and  kept  them  busy  every  minute.  His  letters 
were  read  to  him  in  bed,  and  he  dictated  answers  until 
his  nurse  made  him  rest. 

"He  almost  never  takes  a  real  vacation.  Most  people 
think  that  because  he  moves  his  family  down  to  the 
seashore  every  summer  he  has  a  long  rest,  but  it  isn't 
so.  Even  when  he  doesn't  come  into  the  city  he  has 
letters  and  telegrams  sent  him.  Last  summer  I  had 
charge  of  the  mail,  and  whenever  he  stayed  down  at  the 
shore  we  either  called  him  on  the  long-distance  telephone 
two  or  three  times  a  day  to  ask  about  things,  or  sent  him 
the  important  letters  and  telegrams.  There  never  was 
a  day  that  we  didn't  send  him  at  least  five  telegrams  or 
telephone  messages." 

Here  one  of  the  boys  interrupted  with  "But  I  thought 
Mr.  Estabrook  was  a  very  rich  man." 

"He  makes  a  great  deal  of  money  in  his  business,  but 
if  he  didn't  attend  to  everything  as  carefully  as  he  does, 
he  might  become  a  poor  man  in  a  few  years." 

That  night  William  said  to  his  father,  who  was  a 
foreman  in  a  shoe  factoiy:  "Do  all  rich  men  have  to 
work  hard?  One  of  our  stenographers  says  that  Mr. 
Estabrook  is  the  hardest  worker  in  the  place." 


120  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"I  don't  doubt  it,"  replied  his  father.  "It  isn't  an 
easy  job  to  be  at  the  head  of  a  big  business,  even  if  you 
make  forty  thousand  dollars  a  year  from  it.  The  more 
money  you  make,  the  more  looking  after  it  takes.  One 
morning  last  week  I  got  to  the  shop  earlier  than  usual — 
I  think  it  was  about  half  past  six — and  whom  should  I 
see  just  leaving  the  front  office  but  three  of  our  directors. 
I  thought  something  pretty  bad  must  have  happened  to 
get  them  out  so  early,  but  what  do  you  suppose  ?  Why, 
they  had  been  having  a  meeting  to  talk  over  some  im- 
portant business  matters,  and  had  been  there  all  night. 
The  superintendent  said  they  seldom  finished  any  of 
their  evening  meetings  before  one  o'clock. 

"I  don't  know  that  I  care  about  being  rich  if  you 
have  to  work  just  as  hard  as  if  you  were  poor,"  said  Wil- 
liam after  a  few  minutes. 

"Well,  if  you  are  afraid  of  hard  work,  you  may  be  sure 
of  one  thing — you'll  never  be  rich.  I  used  to  think,  just 
as  you  do,  that  some  day  I  should  like  to  have  enough 
money  so  that  I  shouldn't  have  to  keep  a  regular  job, 
but  could  have  a  place  in  the  country  and  take  things 
easy.  Now  I've  changed  my  mind.  I  think  it  was  in- 
tended that  we  should  all  work  hard;  it's  good  for  us. 
There's  a  deal  of  satisfaction  in  getting  things  done  and 
done  right,  and  in  watching  your  pay  envelope  get  fatter 
and  fatter." 


BEING  RICH  121 

William  was  looking  thoughtful,  and  said  nothing. 

"You  know  that  fine  big  clubhouse  down  by  the 
river?" 

"Yes/5  said  William,  "one  of  the  boys  at  the  office 
calls  it  the  Gold  Bugs'  Loafing  Club." 

"You  can  tell  him  he's  all  wrong,"  replied  his  father. 
"I  know  the  steward  of  the  club,  and  one  day  he  took 
me  over  it.  It  was  noon-time  when  I  was  there,  and  the 
dining-rooms  were  full. 

"Having  a  nice,  easy  time,  aren't  they?"  I  said. 

"Depends  on  what  you  mean  by  an  easy  time,"  he 
replied.  "They're  all  busy  men,  and  just  because  they 
sit  at  the  table  a  couple  of  hours  doesn't  mean  that  they 
are  doing  nothing  but  eat.  I  think  you  would  find  that 
all  the  groups  of  men  are  talking  business.  Most  of 
them  can't  afford  to  take  an  hour  for  lunch,  but  of  course 
they  must  eat,  so  they  come  down  here  and  talk  busi- 
ness at  the  same  time. 

"Look  at  that  group  over  there  by  the  window.  See 
how  in  earnest  they  all  are.  Every  one  of  them  has  for- 
gotten to  eat.  That  large  man  is  the  president  of  the 
Realty  Trust  Company — don't  know  who  the  others 
are,  but  I'll  venture  to  say  they  are  working  as  hard  as 
if  they  were  in  a  down-town  office." 

The  next  day  William  looked  curiously  at  Mr.  Esta- 
brook  as  he  went  into  his  private  office. 


122  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"He  certainly  does  look  tired/'  he  said  to  himself. 

That  day  he  kept  a  sharp  watch  of  Mr.  Estabrook's 
door  to  see  who  went  in  and  out.  By  noon  he  had  counted 
twenty-five  men  who  had  asked  for  Mr.  Estabrook;  all 
insisting  that  they  must  see  him  on  important  business. 
Twenty  of  these  men  had  been  admitted  to  the  private 
office.  When  twelve  o'clock  came;  William  decided  to 
eat  the  lunch  he  had  brought  from  home  and  see  what 
Mr.  Estabrook  did.  At  half-past  twelve  the  president 
rang  for  a  stenographer,  and  it  was  two  o'clock  before 
his  secretary  came  out,  saying:  "Here,  William,  go  over 
to  the  restaurant  and  get  two  chicken  sandwiches  and  a 
bottle  of  milk  for  Mr.  Estabrook." 

At  four  o'clock  Mr.  Estabrook  left,  saying:  "If  any- 
body needs  to  get  me  on  business,  I  shall  be  at  the  club 
until  six  o'clock.  I'm  going  to  New  York  on  the  night 
train,  but  expect  to  be  back  by  six  tomorrow." 

"I  have  been  on  the  watch  all  day,  Henry,"  said  Wil- 
liam, "and  I  don't  believe  it's  a  whole  lot  of  fun  to  be 
rich  after  all.  Anyway,  it's  hard  work.  Mr.  Estabrook 
hasn't  been  out  of  the  office  today  until  just  now." 

A  few  months  later  a  clean-cut,  athletic-looking  boy 
of  seventeen  appeared  at  the  office  at  eight  o'clock  ready 
for  work. 

"Huh,  he's  pretty  old  to  be  starting  in  as  office  boy," 
said  William  to  Henrv. 


BEING  RICH  123 

"Stupid!"  replied  Henry;  "he's  Mr.  Estabrook's 
son.  He's  come  in  to  learn  the  business.  Don't  you 
understand?" 

"I  don't  see  how  it's  learning  the  business  to  go  for 
the  mail,  run  errands,  clean  waste-baskets,  and  do  a  lot 
of  other  nasty  little  jobs.  I  hope  you  don't  think  that 
you  and  I  are  learning  the  business?"  he  finished  with  a 
scornful  laugh. 

"Maybe,"  said  Henry.  "When  I  first  came  here,  the 
principal  of  our  grammar-school,  who  wrote  a  recom- 
mendation for  me,  said  that  I  had  an  unusual  oppor- 
tunity, and  that  to  get  to  the  top  of  any  business  or  pro- 
fession it  was  always  necessary  to  begin  at  the  bottom. 
Then,  when  it  was  decided  that  Mr.  Estabrook's  son  was 
coming  in  here,  his  secretary  said :  '  That's  the  only  way 
to  make  a  good  business  man  of  him.  He  must  work  his 
own  way  or  else  he  will  never  be  able  to  do  what  his 
father  has  done.  I  admire  any  rich  man's  son  who  is 
ambitious  and  isn't  contented  to  live  on  his  father's 
money  without   working  ! ' 

"Look  here,  William,"  continued  Henry,  half  laugh- 
ingly and  half  seriously,  "let's  make  believe  we  are  Mr. 
Estabrook's  sons  and  are  learning  the  business  from  the 
bottom  up,  and  perhaps  some  day  we  shall  be  members 
of  the  firm." 

But  William  was  the  kind  of  boy  that  is  always  a  little 


124  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

afraid  of  hard  work.     He  was  looking  for  easy  things 
to  do. 

Many  boys,  and  men,  too,  seem  to  think  that  a  rich 
man's  life  is  an  easy  one.  It  is  true  that  the  rich  man 
has  large  sums  of  money  to  spend,  and  usually  owns  a 
beautiful  home  and  many  things  that  every  one  covets. 
But  except  for  a  few  idle  rich  persons  who  have  had  their 
money  left  them,  wealthy  men  lead  the  busiest  kind  of 
lives.  The  richest  lawyers  and  doctors  are  almost  always 
the  ones  who  are  so  busy  that  year  after  year  they  can- 
not find  time  to  take  a  vacation.  In  one  of  our  large 
cities  a  celebrated  children's  specialist  died  in  his  prime. 
The  autopsy  showed  that  his  heart  was  worn  out.  He 
had  worked  himself  to  death,  although  he  was  a  rich 
man  and  was  greatly  envied  by  the  poor  young  doctors. 
From  his  boyhood  until  the  year  that  he  died  he  had 
worked  days  and  nights,  for  a  doctor  must  do  much  of 
his  hardest  work  when  others  sleep.  People  from  all  over 
the  country  brought  their  sick  children  to  him,  and 
while  this  was  a  great  honor  to  him,  it  left  him  no  time 
for  rest  or  recreation. 

The  lawyer  who  easily  makes  many  thousands  of  dol- 
lars each  year  is  fortunate  if  his  working  days  are  less 
than  sixteen  hours  long.  In  addressing  some  young 
men  one  day,  a  successful  and  wealthy  lawyer  said: 


BEING   RICH  125 

"Well,  boys,  you  can't  succeed  at  anything  without 
paying  a  high  price.  And  the  price  is  (1)  hard  work, 
(2)  hard  work,  (3)  hard  work.  And  after  you  have  suc- 
ceeded you  can't  keep  on  being  successful  without  pay- 
ing the  same  price — hard  work.  As  one  principal  said 
to  his  pupils:  'Growing  boys  and  girls  who  are  still  at 
school  must  play  as  well  as  work.  But  all  of  you  must 
learn  how  to  work  if  you  are  to  be  successful  or  happy  or 
rich.'" 


XIII 
RIGHT  GIVING 

Howard  Briggs,  who  sold  newspapers  at  the  corner  of 
Market  and  Main  streets  in  Millville  every  day  after 
school;  had  met  with  an  accident.  One  of  the  boys  was 
excitedly  telling  his  teacher,  Miss  Mayberry,  about  it 
the  next  morning.  He  was  run  down  by  an  automobile 
and  his  right  leg  broken,  and  to  the  boys  of  the  school 
this  seemed  almost  the  greatest  misfortune  that  could 
come  to  a  vigorous  thirteen-year-old  boy. 

"Now,  if  it  had  been  his  arm/'  suggested  one  sym- 
pathizer, "he  could  have  that  done  up  in  a  sling  and 
come  to  school  just  the  same." 

"Yes,"  said  another,  "and  perhaps  he  could  even 
have  sold  papers  with  his  good  hand." 

"My,  won't  he  be  disappointed  not  to  get  promoted 
next  spring!"  exclaimed  one  of  the  girls. 

Miss  Mayberry,  who  had  been  listening  but  had  said 
little,    now    spoke. 

"I  must  attend  a  teachers'  meeting  this  afternoon,  so 
I  can't  call  on  Howard,  but  I  suggest  that  you  appoint  a 

126 


RIGHT  GIVING  127 

committee  of  three  to  give  him  our  sympathy  and  find 
out  if  there  is  anything  we  can  do  to  help  him." 

The  pupils  agreed  to  this  eagerly,  and  the  next  morn- 
ing directly  after  the  opening  exercises  Miss  Mayberry 
asked  for  a  report  from  the  visitors.  Edwin  Foster  was 
made  the  spokesman. 

"Why,  Miss  Mayberry,"  Edwin  began  eagerly, 
"Howard  is  the  pluckiest  boy  you  ever  saw.  He  looked 
pretty  white  and  smelled  like  an  apothecary  shop,  but 
he  said  he  wanted  his  schoolbooks  sent  home  so  that  he 
could  keep  up  in  all  his  studies.  I  told  him  we'd  help 
by  letting  him  know  just  how  fast  we  were  going." 

"Yes,"  said  Miss  Mayberry,  "and  if  the  doctor  as- 
sures us  that  he  is  able  to  do  this  work,  perhaps  we  can 
make  some  arrangement  for  him  to  send  the  regular 
written  work  to  me  to  correct.  But  I  have  another  sug- 
gestion to  make  if  you  have  finished,  Edwin." 

"I  guess  that's  all,"  the  boy  said  slowly,  "except  that 
I'm  afraid  the  Briggses  are  awfully  poor.  While  I  was 
talking  with  Howard  I  sat  down  on  the  edge  of  the  bed, 
and  something  rattled.  I  looked  a  little  surprised,  I 
suppose,  and  Howard  said:  'Oh,  that's  only  newspapers. 
Ma  puts  them  between  the  blanket  and  the  spread  to 
help  keep  the  cold  out.' 

"I  call  that  being  pretty  poor,  don't  you,  Miss  May- 
berry?" Edwin  asked. 


128  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 


UTf, 


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itl 


I've  no  doubt  that  the  Briggs  family  does  have  a 
hard  time  to  get  along,"  said  Miss  Mayberry,  "but  I  am 
sure  it  was  a  very  sensible  thing  for  Mrs.  Briggs  to  do. 
It  is  well  known  that  a  layer  of  newspapers  between 
blankets  or  between  a  spread  and  blanket  is  very  effec- 
tive in  keeping  the  cold  out.  This  is  much  cheaper  than 
buying  a  blanket. 

But  I  am  wondering/ '  continued  Miss  Mayberry, 
if  there  is  not  some  help  besides  assisting  Howard  with 
his  studies  that  we  can  give  him.  Have  any  of  you  any 
suggestions?" 

Almost  instantly  there  were  a  dozen  hands  waving 
eagerly  in  the  air. 

One  girl  suggested  that  they  send  Howard  some  flow- 
ers. "Sick  people  always  have  flowers  given  them/' 
she  said. 

Another  said  that  it  would  be  better  to  send  fruit. 
Edwin  thought  they  ought  to  buy  a  warm  blanket. 

"Well,"  said  Miss  Mayberry,  "none  of  you  have 
thought  of  the  suggestion  that  I  had  in  mind.  Howard 
has  been  a  successful  newsboy,  hasn't  he?"  she  asked. 
"He  told  me  once  that  he  never  made  less  than  three  dol- 
lars a  week,  and  that  all  of  this,  except  what  he  needed 
for  clothes,  he  gave  to  his  mother  toward  the  rent.  What 
do  you  suppose  Mrs.  Briggs  will  do  now  without  How- 
ard's money?" 


RIGHT  GIVING  129 

There  were  no  ready  answers,  and  Miss  May  berry 
continued  : 

"  There  is  much  money  wasted  in  wrong  giving,  and 
none  of  us  have  any  money  to  spend  foolishly.  As 
Edwin  has  already  suggested,  I  think  we  should  do  all 
that  we  can  to  help  Howard  with  his  studies  so  that  he 
will  not  waste  a  year's  time.  A  poor  boy  like  Howard 
can't  afford  to  be  put  back  a  year  at  school.  But  in 
addition  to  this  I  think  we  ought  in  some  way  to  help 
him  make  money." 

"I  have  it,"  exclaimed  Edwin.  "Some  of  us  bovs 
can  take  turns  in  selling  his  papers  for  him.  This  will 
hold  his  corner  until  he's  well  again." 

"What  would  you  do  about  the  money?"  asked  one 
of  the  boys. 

"Why,  we'd  give  it  to  Howard,  of  course." 

"Yes,  that  is  my  idea,"  said  Miss  Mayberry.  "Some 
people  think  that  if  a  person  is  in  trouble  you  should 
give  him  money.  But  it  is  much  better  to  help  him 
earn  money  if  possible.  Instead  of  having  different  boys 
take  turns  selling  papers,  I  think  it  would  be  much 
wiser  for  some  one  boy  who  needs  a  little  extra  money, 
to  talk  the  matter  over  with  Howard  and  arrange  to 
sell  the  papers  on  commission.  This  would  be  busi- 
nesslike and  fair.  I  don't  know  just  how  the  News 
Service  Company  would  feel   about  such   an   arrange- 


130  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

ment,  but  I  will  have  our  principal  talk  it  over  with 
them." 

"Oh,  Miss  Mayberry,"  said  one  of  the  girls  in  a  be- 
seeching tone,  "can't  we  send  him  some  flowers?" 

"Where  will  you  get  them?"  asked  the  teacher. 
"Flowers  don't  grow  wild  in  February." 

"We  should  have  to  buy  roses;  or  carnations,  or  some- 
thing like  that  from  the  florist." 

"Yes,  but  carnations  cost  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  dozen 
this  time  of  year,  and  for  that  sum  of  money  you  could 
buy  a  fat  chicken,  which  would  do  Howard  more  good 
than  the  flowers.  But  I  understand  what  you  feel, 
Esther.  It  seems  to  you  that  we  can  show  our  sym- 
pathy better  by  sending  something  beautiful.  I  used  to 
feel  that  way  myself,  and  if  you  could  go  out  into  the 
country  and  bring  back  flowers  or  leaves,  I  should  say 
by  all  means  to  do  so.  But  to  pay  a  dollar  or  more  for 
flowers  that  will  last  only  a  few  days  is  not  wise  when 
Howard  needs  so  many  things.  A  little  later,  when  he 
first  gets  onto  his  feet,  he  will  need  a  pair  of  crutches. 
Perhaps  you  can  help  buy  those." 

The  first  recitation  bell  then  rang,  and  the  regular 
school  work  of  the  day  was  begun.  Miss  Mayberry 
could  not  help  feeling  that  Esther,  and  perhaps  many 
of  the  other  pupils,  did  not  agree  with  her  about  the 
flowers.     However,  she  said  nothing  more,  and  the  girls 


RIGHT  GIVING  131 

bought  the  chicken,  after  first  asking  Mrs.  Briggs  if  it 
would  be  acceptable. 

"It  is  a  rule  of  mine/'  Miss  Maybeny  had  explained, 
"always  to  inquire  of  the  person  to  whom  I  am  going  to 
give  anything  eatable  or  perishable  if  it  will  be  wel- 
come. Perhaps,  for  instance,  some  one  may  have  just 
given  Mrs.  Briggs  a  chicken,  or  perhaps  the  doctor  has 
said  that  rich  beef  will  be  best  for  Howard." 

Miss  Maybeny  had  made  her  listeners  laugh  heartily 
by  telling  them  that  during  an  illness  of  hers,  when  the 
doctor  had  forbidden  her  to  eat  anything  sweet,  all  her 
friends  sent  her  jellies,  custards,  and  ice-creams,  which 
the  rest  of  the  family  enjoyed.  "They  might  have  sent 
me  things  that  I  could  eat,  only  they  never  thought  to 
inquire." 

When  Miss  Maybeny  herself  had  time  to  visit  the 
Briggses  she  found  Howard  propped  up  in  bed,  his  leg 
stiff  in  a  plaster  cast,  but  his  face  wreathed  in  smiles. 

"I'm  getting  along  all  right  hi  my  arithmetic,"  he  said 
eagerly,  "but  the  English  grammar  bothers  me — and  I'm 
a  little  worried  about  my  paper  corner.  I  was  wonder- 
ing if  the  principal  would  be  willing  to  ask  the  Xews 
Company  if  I  can  have  it  back  when  I  am  out  again." 

"That's  one  thing  I  wanted  to  talk  about,  Howard," 
said  Miss  Maybeny.  "The  boys  have  offered  to  take 
turns  selling  papers  on  your  corner  to  hold  it  for  you, 


132  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

but  I  think  it  would  be  better  if  some  one  boy,  like  Paul 
Ford,  should  do  it  all  the  time.  He  needs  money,  for 
his  father  has  just  died,  and  there  are  several  children. 
You  could  engage  him  to  work  for  you,  and  pay  him  a 
share  of  all  that  he  made.  This  would  still  give  you 
some  of  the  money  that  you  used  to  earn,  and  would 
keep  the  business  in  your  own  hands.  You  would  be 
an  employer  instead  of  an  employee." 

"That's  just  the  idea!"  exclaimed  Howard.  "Paul 
can  have  half  of  all  the  net  profits,  and  I'll  lend  him  my 
rubber  coat  and  cape  and  high  boots.  Tell  him  to  come 
round  to  see  me  tonight,  will  you?" 

In  a  week's  time  the  hundreds  of  men  and  women  who 
streamed  past  the  corner  of  Market  and  Main  streets 
on  their  way  home  from  work  heard  a  new  voice  piping : 
"All  the  latest  papers!  Paper,  sir!"  To  the  many  in- 
quiries as  to  where  Howard  was,  Paul  explained:  "Leg's 
broken.  I'm  working  for  him.  He'll  be  back  soon. 
Paper,  sir!" 

When  Miss  Mayberry  found  that  the  boys  were  greatly 
disappointed  at  not  being  able  to  help  sell  Howard's 
papers  for  him,  she  went  to  the  principal  and  asked  him 
if  she  had  made  a  mistake. 

"No,"  he  said.  "It  is  better  business  policy  for  cus- 
tomers to  get  used  to  seeing  the  same  boy  every  day 
than  to  find  a  new  face  each  time.     But  I  have  a  sug- 


RIGHT  GIVING  133 

gestion  to  make  to  the  boys.  I'll  come  in  just  after 
recess." 

The  moment  the  principal  said  he  wanted  to  talk 
about  Howard  every  face  was  alight  with  interest. 

"I  think  the  boys  in  Howard's  class  can  help  him  by 
what  we  call  in  business  ( advertising.'  Each  of  you  can 
ask  your  fathers  and  acquaintances;  and  even  strangers, 
to  buy  their  papers  of  Paul.  You  will,  of  course,  explain 
that  Howard  is  poor  but  plucky,  and  that  you  want  to 
help  him  to  help  himself.  By  the  way,  boys  and  girls," 
the  principal  said  as  he  turned  to  go,  "  that's  a  pretty  good 
motto  for  each  of  you  to  have — l  Help  yourself,  and  help 
others  to  help  themselves.'" 

"Yes,"  added  Miss  Mayberry,  "don't  you  all  think  it 
is  much  better  to  give  this  kind  of  help  to  Howard  than 
just  money  or  flowers?" 

Many  heads  nodded  in  assent,  although  a  few  faces 
looked  doubtful.  But  when  at  the  end  of  two  months 
Paul  reported  that  his  newspaper  business  had  increased 
so  rapidly,  thanks  to  the  boys'  advertising,  that  he  was 
able  to  turn  over  three  dollars  a  week  to  Howard  and 
keep  two  himself,  everybody  was  convinced  that  Miss 
Mayberry's  way  was  best. 

Every  Friday  afternoon  the  pupils  in  Miss  Mayberry's 
room  had  a  surprise — provided  the  conduct  of  the  room 
had  been  sufficiently  good.     One  week  the  principal  had 


134  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

brought  in  some  photographs  of  air-ships  and  explained 
how  they  were  run;  and  what  might  be  accomplished 
with  them  in  time  of  war;  another  Friday  Miss  May- 
berry  had  showed  them  some  doilies  and  lace  made  of 
pineapple  fibre  by  the  children  in  the  Philippines.  The 
Friday  following  the  incidents  just  described;  a  large 
box  had  been  brought  to  the  school  by  the  expressman 
and  left  in  the  dressing-room.  When  the  pupils  returned 
after  dinner,  they  gazed  in  astonishment  at  Miss  May- 
berry's  desk,  which  looked  like  a  show-case  in  the  fancy- 
goods  department '  of  a  store.  One  girl  whispered  ex- 
citedly to  another  that  their  teacher  was  going  to  give 
them  each  a  present.  But  no  one  knew  what  Miss  May- 
berry  really  intended  to  do  until  she  explained  it  herself. 
"The  other  day  when  we  were  discussing  what  kind 
of  presents  were  suitable  to  give  a  sick  person,  I  wondered 
if  I  couldn't  help  you  all  by  explaining  what  I  feel  about 
useless  gifts.  All  the  articles  on  this  desk  were  given  to 
a  friend  of  mine,  whom  I  will  call  Miss  S ,  last  Christ- 
mas and  the  year  before,  and  she  has  had  them  packed 
away  in  the  attic.  They  are  all  pretty,  but  most  of  them 
are  useless,  and  she  had  no  place  to  put  them.  Here 
are  five  fancy  pincushions,  but  she  needs  only  one,  and 
already  had  a  serviceable  one  that  will  probably  last  her 
at  least  five  years.  The  only  thing  that  she  can  do  with 
these  is  to  give  them  away  again,  but  she  dislikes  to  do 


- 


a 


The  articles  were  given  to  a  friend  of  mine  last  Christinas 


and  she  has  had  them  packed  away  in  the  attic 


»> 


RIGHT  GIVING  135 

this  for  fear  she  will  give  one  to  somebody  who  already 
has  too  many.  I  wonder  what  you  would  advise  her  to 
do  with  them?" 

Several  hands  waved,  but  Miss  Mayberry  said:  "Wait 
until  I  have  shown  you  the  other  things,  and  then  we 
can  talk  them  all  over. 

"Here  are  six  hatpin-holders,  two  made  of  pink 
ribbon,  two  of  blue,  and  the  others  of  mixed  colors.     It 

happens  that  Miss  S has  only  two  hatpins,  and  these 

she  almost  always  keeps  in  her  hat,  for  it  wears  out  the 
straw  or  felt  to  keep  making  new  holes.  So  these  are 
really  useless  to  her,  although  they  are  dainty  and  well 
made." 

"Miss  Mayberry"  asked  Esther  in  answer  to  the 
teacher's  look  of  permission,  "what  is  that  large  yellow 
box?    Isn't  it  beautiful!" 

"I  don't  know  just  what  this  is,  but  I  suppose  it  was 
intended  for  gloves  or  handkerchiefs.     It  is  too  large  to 

fit  into  any  of  Miss  S 's  small  bureau  drawers,  and 

she  can't  have  it  out  in  sight,  for  this  color  doesn't  match 
any  other  color  in  the  room. 

"These  vases,"  Miss  Mayberry  continued,  as  she 
pointed  to  three  veiy  gaudy-looking  pieces  of  china, 
"are  really  not  at  all  beautiful,  although  they  may  have 
been  very  expensive.  A  vase  is  something  that  I  should 
never  think  of  buying  for  another  person,  unless  I  knew 


136  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

that  person's  tastes  and  something  about  what  he  al- 
ready had  or  wanted.    If  Miss  S sets  up  any  of 

these  at  home,  they  will  have  to  take  the  place  of  some 
vase  or  other  ornament  that  she  likes.  So  she  simply 
packs  them  away  in  the  attic. 

"The  other  things  here  are  very  much  like  those  I 
have  just  pointed  out.  Here  is  a  big  fancy  cologne- 
bottle,  but  few  people  keep  on  hand  a  large  quantity 
of  cologne,  and  if  they  did,  a  plainer  bottle  would  be 
better  than  this.  Of  these  two  pairs  of  bedroom  slip- 
pers, one  is  too  small  and  the  other  too  large. 

"Probably  the  articles  on  this  desk  together  cost  about 
twenty  dollars.  Think  of  all  that  money  really  wasted  !'; 
Here  Miss  Mayberry  stopped  abruptly.  "But  perhaps 
you  don't  agree  with  me.  Now  I'll  listen  to  what  you 
have  to  say." 

"My  bureau  drawer  is  full  of  things  that  I  don't  know 
what  to  do  with,"  said  one  girl. 

"But,  Miss  Mayberry,"  said  Esther,  "don't  you  be- 
lieve in  giving  Christmas  presents?  I  like  to  get  things 
even  if  I  can't  use  them." 

"Indeed,  I  do  believe  in  sending  our  friends  gifts,  and 
the  simplest  little  present  gives  me  pleasure.  But  most 
of  us  are  too  poor  to  waste  even  a  cent  of  our  money, 
and  it  is  real  waste  to  buy  a  useless  article  for  ourselves 
or  to  give  one  to  a  friend." 


RIGHT  GIVING  137 

Here  one  of  the  boys  spoke  up. 

" That's  what  I've  heard  father  say.  Last  Christmas 
he  said  he  didn't  have  one  sensible  present  given  him." 

"  Perhaps  you  have  all  heard/'  said  Miss  Mayberry, 
"of  the  poor  home  missionary's  family  in  Dakota  which 
was  sadly  in  need  of  clothing.  Some  society  had  care- 
fully prepared  a  barrel  of  good  things  for  them,  which 
included  a  number  of  warm  dresses,  hoods,  and  under- 
clothing. But  the  poor  missionary  was  dismayed  when 
he  saw  these  garments,  for  his  girls  were  all  boys." 

"Miss  Mayberry,"  said  one  of  the  girls  who  had  not 
spoken  before,  "what  kind  of  presents  can  we  give? 
If  we  have  only  ten  cents  to  spend  on  a  little  present, 
it  would  look  foolish  to  write  and  ask  a  girl  what  she 
wanted  that  wouldn't  cost  more  than  ten  cents." 

"There  are  some  things  that  are  always  useful,  and 
when  you  do  not  know  a  person  well  enough  to  find  out 
what  she  wants,  you  can  give  her  one  of  these.  If  you 
give  a  girl  friend  something  that  ought  to  be  useful  to 
any  one,  she  can  give  it  away  if  she  is  well  supplied. 
Perhaps  you  would  like  to  know  the  kind  of  birthday 
and  Christmas  presents  that  I  think  are  always  suit- 
able." 

Everybody  nodded,  and  Miss  Mayberry  continued: 

"The  girl  who  sews  can  make  many  attractive  gifts. 
A  neat  linen  hemstitched  handkerchief  can  be  made  for 


138  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

ten  cents  or  less;  and  no  one  can  have  too  many  of  these. 
Every  person  needs  to  have  a  clean  one  every  morning, 
and  because  handkerchiefs  are  easily  worn  out  or  lost 
it  takes  a  good  many  to  make  a  year's  supply.  A  neat 
handkerchief  is  one  of  the  signs  of  a  careful  person,  and 
is  a  kind  of  recommendation. 

"  Wash-cloths  and  towels  are  other  things  of  which 
both  boys  and  girls  cannot  have  too  many.  A  person 
should  not  use  the  same  cloth  more  than  half  a  week 
without  washing  it  thoroughly;  and,  of  course,  each  per- 
son in  a  family  must  use  separate  cloths,  and  constant 
washing  wears  them  out.  It  is  much  more  agreeable  to 
keep  one's  body  clean  with  dainty  wash-cloths  than  with 
'just  anything.'  One  of  the  presents  that  I  had  last 
Christmas  was  a  box  containing  six  face-cloths,  hand- 
made, with  my  initial  in  the  corner. 

"At  Christmas  and  New  Year's  almost  every  one  burns 
candles,  so  a  present  that  I  frequently  make  is  a  box 
containing  two  bayberry  candles." 

"Yes,  but  candles  aren't  useful,"  said  Edwin. 

"I  didn't  mean  to  say  that  every  present  should  be 
useful — only  that  it  should  not  be  something  that  will 
be  wasted.  Anything  that  gives  real  pleasure  is  as  suit- 
able a  gift  as  a  useful  present." 

Ellen  Richards  now  spoke.  "I  know  a  woman  who 
always  gives  away  candy  for  Christmas.     I  heard  her 


RIGHT  GIVING  139 

tell  my  mother  that  last  year  she  had  just  five  dollars 
that  she  could  spend,  so  she  made  a  list  of  the  different 
persons  she  wanted  to  give  something  to.  She  bought 
the  same  number  of  small  square  boxes  as  there  were 
persons  in  her  list.  These  she  lined  with  pretty  green 
paper  and  filled  with  creamed  walnuts,  stuffed  dates, 
and  chocolate  peppermints,  that  she  had  made  herself." 

"I'm  sure  I  don't  know  of  a  better  present  for  Christ- 
mas or  birthday  than  home-made  candy,"  said  Miss 
Mayberry.  "Good  candy  is  expensive  to  buy,  and  poor 
candy  should  never  be  bought;  and  if  one  can  make  it 
at  home  she  can  always  give  a  suitable  present  to  any 
friend. 

"  An  interesting  story-book  is  a  good  present,  and  when 
I  make  a  present  of  a  book  to  any  one  I  never  write  any- 
thing in  the  book  itself,  but  slip  in  one  of  my  cards  or  a 
piece  of  paper  on  which  I  say  that  if  the  friend  already 
owns  a  copy  of  this  book,  she  can  pass  it  on  to  some  one 
else.  In  this  way  I  prevent  the  waste  of  one  person's 
owning  two  copies  of  the  same  story. 

"Well,  our  time  is  up,"  said  Miss  Mayberry,  looking 
at  the  clock,  "but  I  am  going  to  suggest  that  you  talk 
this  matter  of  gifts  over  with  your  parents  and  friends, 
and  make  out  a  list  of  useful  and  inexpensive  articles 
that  are  sensible  for  presents,  and  next  Friday  we  will 
discuss   some   of   these." 


140 


STORIES  OF  THRIFT 


Here  are  a  few  of  the  articles  mentioned  in  the  lists 
handed  in  to  Miss  Mayberry: 


Story-books. 

Books  on  baseball,  football, 
swimming,  etc. 

Books  of  games  and  cha- 
rades. 

Handkerchiefs  and  aprons. 

Hair  ribbons. 

Writing-paper  and  envelopes. 

Candy. 

Cracked  nuts. 

Popcorn  balls. 

Edging  for  underclothing. 

Hatpins. 


Gloves    (if   the   right   size   is 

known) . 
Cloth  book-bags. 
Book-straps. 
Pocket  note-books. 
Fountain  pen. 
Pocket-knife. 
Nail-file. 
Orange-stick. 
Plain-ribbon  sachets. 
Games. 
Baseballs. 
Postage-stamps. 


XIV 

SAVING  MONEY 

One  day  in  June  in  a  large  city  newspaper  appeared 
this  advertisement: 

WANTED. — A  clean,  honest  boy,  not  more  than 
fifteen  years  old,  who  is  ambitious  and  not  afraid 
of  work.  The  right  boy  will  have  a  chance  to  learn 
the  business  and  work  up  into  a  good  position. 
Apply  by  letter.  D.  V.  13. 

Hundreds  of  boys  who  were  just  finishing  the  gram- 
mar-school applied  for  this  position.  Some  of  the  appli- 
cants were  tired  of  school  and  did  not  want  to  study  any 
more,  so  they  thought  they  would  be  independent  and 
"get  a  job/'  as  they  called  it.  Others  were  poor  and 
had  to  help  out  at  home,  and  so  could  not  attend  school 
any  longer. 

Mr.  Brown,  the  man  who  inserted  the  advertisement, 
had  his  secretary  inspect  the  letters  and  show  him  only 
the  good  ones.  The  secretary  decided  that  thirty  appli- 
cations were  good  enough  to  show  his  employer.  After 
examining  these,  Mr.  Brown  gave  the  secretary  ten  let- 

141 


142  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

ters  with  instructions  to  ask  each  of  the  ten  boys  to  come 
to  his  office  two  days  later  at  three  o'clock. 

After  the  secret ary  had  interviewed  each  applicant 
and  made  a  note  of  his  age,  schooling,  recommendations, 
and  the  like,  he  was  to  turn  him  over  to  his  employer. 

These  are  some  of  the  questions  Mr.  Brown  asked 
each  of  the  ten  boys: 

1.  Why  aren't  you  going  to  school  any  longer? 

2.  Don't  you  think  that  every  boy  and  girl  should 
go  through  the  high  school? 

3.  If  you  get  this  position,  do  you  expect  to  go  to 
the  night  school? 

4.  What  should  you  do  with  the  money  that  you 
earned  here? 

5.  Have  you  any  money  in  the  savings-bank  ? 

6.  What  are  your  favorite  books? 

7.  What  do  you  do  with  your  spare  time? 

Most  of  the  boys  were  surprised  at  the  questions,  for 
they  had  supposed  that  if  they  were  clean  and  honest 
and  willing  to  work  hard  nothing  more  would  be  re- 
quired. But  Mr.  Brown  knew  that  there  was  a  big  dif- 
ference even  in  honest  boys,  and  he  wanted  the  best  that 
he  could  get.  The  position  was  that  of  office  boy  whose 
hours  were  from  eight  to  six,  with  an  hour  at  noon.    The 


SAYING  MONEY  143 

duties  at  first  would  be  going  for  the  mail;  opening  it 
and  assorting  it  for  distribution  to  the  different  depart- 
ments; folding,  stamping,  and  sealing  the  letters  at  night; 
emptying  the  waste-baskets;  and  doing  miscellaneous 
errands.  The  pay  would  be  five  dollars  a  week,  with  six 
at  the  end  of  six  months  if  the  boy  was  satisfactory. 
The  right  boy  would  be  given  every  possible  chance  to 
learn  the  business  and  work  up  into  a  good  position. 

At  four  o'clock  when  Mr.  Brown  called  for  his  secre- 
tary, he  said:  "I  have  hired  James  Morgan.  He  will 
begin  work  tomorrow  morning." 

The  secretary  looked  a  little  surprised.  "I  thought 
James  looked  delicate,  Mr.  Brown.  Do  you  think  he 
will  be  strong  enough  to  stand  the  long  hours  and  the 
hard  work  here?" 

"I  hope  so,"  answered  Mr.  Brown,  "for  he  is  going 
to  make  a  good  worker  and  a  valuable  man  for  us  to 
have.  He  is  the  only  one  of  the  ten  bovs  who  has  a  bank 
account.  When  I  asked  him  where  he  got  the  money, 
he  said  he  had  had  to  give  his  mother  a  dollar  a  week  for 
the  last  two  years,  and  what  he  had  earned  over  that 
amount  he  had  put  in  the  bank." 

"And  how  big  is  his  bank  account?"  asked  the  secre- 
tary curiously. 

"Only  five  dollars.  It  is  not  the  amount  but  the  fact 
of  his  saving  that  pleased  me.    If  a  boy  can  save  out  of 


144  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

the  few  dollars  that  he  earns  Saturdays  and  nights  after 
school,  he  is  worth  giving  a  chance.  Then,  when  I  asked 
him  what  use  he  would  make  of  his  five  dollars  a  week 
if  we  hired  him,  he  said  that  he  should  give  his  mother 
two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  board  money,  sixty  cents 
would  go  for  car-fare,  five  cents  each  day  for  a  glass  of 
milk  to  go  with  the  sandwiches  that  he  would  bring  from 
home,  fifty  cents  into  his  tin  box  to  save  toward  clothes, 
and  the  rest  into  the  bank,  unless  of  course  he  needed  it 
for  something  else. 

"I  asked  him  if  he  wouldn't  want  to  spend  some  of 
the  money  for  books,  and  he  said  that  they  had  a  good 
many  at  home.  He  likes  Dickens's  novels  and  stories 
about  great  men  like  Napoleon,  Robert  E.  Lee,  and 
Alexander  Hamilton.  Altogether  he  seemed  a  promising 
boy." 

Mr.  Brown  had  hired  many  boys  during  the  thirty 
years  that  he  had  been  in  business,  and  had  come  to  be- 
lieve that  if  a  boy  was  not  prudent  and  saving  when 
fourteen,  the  chances  were  that  he  would  not  be  when  he 
was  twenty. 

"Then  I  like  to  have  boys  in  my  business,"  he  had 
explained  one  day  to  a  friend,  "who  are  thoughtful  for 
their  families.  If  a  boy  is  considerate  of  his  mother,  he 
is  likely  to  be  considerate  of  those  with  whom  he  works. 
And  if  a  boy  reads  books  about  the  men  who  have  made 


SAVING  MONEY  145 

great  successes;  I  know  that  he  is  looking  further  ahead 
than  next  week." 

Every  thoughtful  employer  is  much  like  Mr.  Brown 
— he  prefers  to  hire  boys  and  girls  who  have  learned  how 
to  save,  and  have  thrifty  habits.  The  boy  who  saves  his 
own  money  is  pretty  sure  to  save  his  employer's.  Many 
a  man  owes  his  failure  in  life  to  the  fact  that  he  never 
learned  how  to  save.  One  day  in  a  large  city  business 
concern  the  directors  were  holding  a  meeting  to  decide 
about  combining  two  of  their  departments  into  one.  To 
do  tins  meant  that  the  head  of  one  of  the  departments 
would  lose  his  position. 

"I  am  sorry  to  say/'  said  the  president,  "that  the  posi- 
tion will  have  to  go  to  Mr.  Emery  instead  of  to  Mr. 
Fernshaw,  although  Mr.  Fernshaw  has  been  with  us 
longer  and  is  an  efficient  person.  But  in  the  thirty 
years  that  he  has  worked  for  us  he  has  saved  nothing, 
and  today  is  a  poor  man  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  for  sev- 
eral years  his  salary  has  been  $10,000  a  year."  This 
decision  meant  that  Mr.  Fernshaw  at  sixtv  vears  of  age 
lost  a  position  that  he  had  supposed  would  be  his  as  long 
as  he  lived.  But  the  president  was  right  in  thinking 
that  the  best  man  for  a  responsible  position  was  not  one 
who  had  saved  nothing  out  of  a  salary  of  $10,000. 

A  small  town  in  Ohio  was  one  day  surprised  to  learn 
that  a  Herbert  Wells,  who  was  "only  a  carpenter,"  as  a 


146  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

woman  said,  had  bought  one  of  the  finest  pieces  of  land 
in  the  town  and  was  putting  up  what  seemed  to  be  an 
expensive  house. 

"I  don't  see  anything  queer  about  that,"  said  one  man 
to  his  wife  at  dinner.  "  Herbert  Wells  is  now  almost 
fifty  years  old,  and  from  the  time  he  was  fifteen  he  has 
worked  steadily  at  his  trade.  He  has  been  an  expert 
worker  and  has  known  how  to  save  his  money.  Prob- 
ably he  will  build  the  most  substantial  house  in  town  and 
will  furnish  it  well,  too." 

"  Seems  to  me,  I'd  rather  spend  my  money  as  I  go," 
said  his  wife.  "What  pleasure  is  there  in  being  poor  for 
fifty  years  for  the  sake  of  building  a  house  when  you 
begin  to  be  old  ?  " 

"You  are  all  wrong,  Mary,"  said  the  husband.  "If 
ever  there  was  a  happy  family  it  is  Herbert  Wells's. 
They  have  never  made  a  splurge  of  any  kind,  but  they 
have  always  paid  their  debts,  their  clothes  are  good  even 
if  they  aren't  in  the  latest  style,  and  they  have  some  of 
the  finest  pieces  of  furniture  in  town.  Just  because  Mrs. 
Wells  has  done  her  own  work  instead  of  keeping  a  maid, 
some  of  the  women  look  down  on  her.  I  don't.  I  think 
she  is  the  kind  of  wife  any  man  should  be  proud  of.  I 
hear  they  have  just  taken  Wells's  second  son  into  the 
bank.  He's  just  like  his  father,  steady-going  and  saving. 
Wish  I  could  have  got  my  son  into  the  bank." 


SAVING  MONEY  147 

"Well/'  said  the  woman  with  a  sigh,  "I  suppose  we'll 
have  to  begin  to  save  sometime." 

Of  course,  this  woman  was  all  wrong.     Every  person — 
man,  woman,  boy,  or  girl — should  save  all  the  time.    The 
person  who  always  says  he  will  begin  to  save  " sometime' 
never  does.     "  Sometime,"  like  tomorrow,  never  comes. 

Girls  need  to  learn  to  save  and  to  start  bank  accounts 
as  well  as  boys.  One  day  the  head  of  a  fashionable 
dressmaker's  shop  asked  a  friend  to  recommend  a  prom- 
ising young  girl  that  she  could  take  in  and  train. 

"I  want  a  girl  that  knows  how  to  save.  Most  of  the 
girls  and  women  in  my  shop  are  so  wasteful  that  I  can't 
afford  to  pay  them  good  wages,  and  they  are  all  the  time 
complaining  about  the  small  pay.  I  can't  seem  to  make 
them  understand  that  they  are  wasteful.  In  looking 
over  my  accounts  last  night  I  found  that  over  five  hun- 
dred dollars  last  year  had  to  be  charged  up  to  i  spoiled 
goods'  or  ' waste.'" 

I  don't  understand  what  you  mean,"  said  the  friend. 
Why,  you  see,  all  the  materials  for  dress  goods  that 
come  into  my  shop  are  of  the  nicest.  If  a  girl  makes  a 
mistake  and  spoils  even  one  sleeve  of  a  gown,  material 
for  which  costs  four  dollars  a  yard,  it  mav  mean  the  loss 
of  a  dollar.  All  the  laces  and  trimming  materials  are 
expensive,  but  it  takes  constant  nagging  to  make  the 
girls  as  careful  as  they  should  be." 


148  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"Can  you  tell  in  advance  if  a  girl  is  going  to  suit 
you?"  asked  the  friend. 

"I  think  so/7  replied  the  dressmaker.  "I  discovered 
one  day  that  only  three  of  my  women  and  girls  had  saved 
any  money,  and  these  three  are  my  most  valuable  and 
best-paid  workers.  It  happened  in  this  way.  When  the 
dull  season  came  last  summer  I  was  in  a  quandary  to 
know  which  girls  to  keep,  and  which  to  let  go,  so  I  asked 
each  two  questions:  'Do  you  have  to  support  yourself 
entirely  ? '  and  '  Have  you  laid  by  any  money  ? '  It  was 
curious,  but  the  three  women  who  had  not  only  them- 
selves but  others  to  support  were  the  only  ones  who 
had  money  in  the  bank.  Several  of  the  others  had  some 
money  saved,  but  were  keeping  it  hidden  away  at  home. 
Now  I  ask  every  new  girl  that  applies  to  me  for  a  posi- 
tion about  her  savings." 

"Well,"  said  the  listener,  "I  suppose  it  never  occurs 
to  most  girls  that  their  future  success  in  life  may  depend 
on  whether  they  have  a  bank  account." 

Many  girls  and  boys  think  it  is  enough  if  they  save  a 
little  money.  It  seems  to  them  foolish  to  put  as  small 
an  amount  as  three  dollars  in  the  bank.  But  it  is  safer 
in  the  bank  than  anywhere  else,  for  there  it  cannot  be 
stolen  or  destroyed  by  fire,  and  it  is  not  idle.  Business 
men  will  not  let  a  single  dollar  lie  idle.  Every  cent  of 
their  money  is  either  in  a  bank,  drawing  interest,  or  is 


SAVING  MONEY  149 

invested  so  that  it  earns  something  every  year.  If 
wealthy  men  cannot  afford  to  let  a  single  dollar  remain 
unused;  surely  those  who  have  only  a  few  dollars  need 
to  make  them  work  even  harder. 

A  principal  was  one  day  telling  his  pupils  of  the  need 
of  saving.  "But  how  can  you  when  you  have  nothing 
to  save?'7  asked  one  boy.  "I  only  get  fifty  cents  a  week 
and  have  to  buy  all  my  own  shoes;  stockings,  and  rub- 
bers. I  can't  save  anything.  If  I  did,  I  should  have 
to  go  without  rubbers,  or  else  wear  stockings  that  were 
so  full  of  darns  that  they  would  hurt  my  feet." 

A  girl  said  that  she  had  no  money  except  what  was 
given  her  on  her  birthday  or  at  Christmas,  and  some- 
times she  had  none  at  all. 

In  answer  to  such  questions  and  remarks,  the  principal 
gave  a  talk  in  the  big  school  hall  on  "keeping  accounts.' ; 
What  he  said  is  so  good  that  it  is  repeated  in  the  next 
chapter. 


XV 

KEEPING  ACCOUNTS 

When  I  was  a  boy  I  lived  on  a  farm  of  fifty  acres. 
Twenty  acres  of  this  was  a  timber  lot,  and  the  rest  good 
pasture  land.  Father  and  mother  were  both  hard  work- 
ers. It  seems  to  me  that  they  were  always  busy,  and 
when  night  came  they  were  too  tired  to  do  anything 
but  go  to  bed.  My  two  brothers  and  I  were  brought 
up  to  help  with  the  work  just  as  soon  as  we  were  old 
enough  to  carry  wood,  build  fires,  and  the  like. 

But  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  all  of  us  worked  as  hard 
as  we  could,  we  were  always  poor.  We  had  enough  to 
eat,  plenty  of  feather  beds  and  bed  clothes,  but  no  books 
or  money. 

Although  I  was  only  ten  years  old  at  the  time,  I  re- 
member distinctly  one  night  at  supper.  My  father  and 
my  oldest  brother  had  been  off  working  in  the  wood- 
lot  all  day,  and  supper  was  nearly  an  hour  late.  I  had 
never  seen  father  so  discouraged  as  he  was  that  evening. 
He  said  he  was  too  tired  to  eat,  although  mother  had  a 
hot  supper  of  creamed  chicken,  cream-of-tartar  biscuit, 

150 


KEEPING  ACCOUNTS  151 

tea,  and  quince  marmalade.  As  he  pulled  off  his  long, 
heavy  boots  and  put  on  his  slippers,  he  remarked  dis- 
couragingly : 

"My  boots  are  all  out  at  the  side.  Guess  they've  seen 
their  best  days,  but  goodness  only  knows  when  I  shall 
have  money  enough  for  another  pair." 

"Why,  I  thought  you  expected  to  sell  some  timber 
this  winter,"  suggested  mother  cheerfully. 

"I've  got  over  expecting,"  said  father  shortly,  as  he 
swallowed  his  tea  disconsolately. 

Nothing  more  was  said  until  supper  was  over  and 
mother  was  washing  dishes,  then  father  began  again: 

"Silas  Jones  came  round  today,  and  said  that  unless 
I  would  sell  him  those  cedar  posts  for  four  cents  a  foot, 
he  wouldn't  take  them.  I  told  him  he  could  take  them 
or  leave  them,  but  I  wouldn't  take  a  penny  less  than 
five  cents." 

Without  waiting  for  any  comment,  father  continued 
his  tale  of  woe. 

"When  on  the  way  back  tonight  we  met  Jim  Currier, 
and  he  says  that  unless  I'll  sell  him  my  spruce  firsts  he 
won't  take  any.  In  two  years'  time  those  firsts  will 
bring  a  couple  of  hundred  dollars  more  than  they  will 
today,  but  because  I'm  so  poor,  I've  got  to  lose  that  two 
hundred,  I  suppose." 

This  discouraging  tale  of  father's  made  quite  an  im- 


152  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

pression  on  me,  and  I  had  a  catch  in  my  throat  at  the 
thought  that  if  we  were  so  poor  as  he  said  I  should 
never  get  the  baseball  mit  that  I  wanted.  I  remember 
that  I  glanced  at  mother  expecting  to  see  her  face  as 
long  as  father's,  but  she  only  looked  sober.  After  a 
while  she  said: 

"I've  been  thinking,  John,  that  one  reason  why  we 
don't  get  on  is  because  we  don't  know  where  we  stand. 
We  never  keep  any  account  of  the  time,  money,  and 
labor  that  we  spend  on  the  different  things.  Perhaps  if 
you  could  figure  out  what  it  costs  to  keep  up  that  timber 
lot,  you'd  decide  that  it  would  be  best  to  sell  the  whole 
twenty  acres  outright  and  put  the  money  into  something 
else.  Or  perhaps  you  would  do  better  to  hire  one  of  these 
portable  sawmills  and  sell  dressed  timber.  It  was  only 
the  other  day  that  I  was  wondering  why  we  never  had 
any  ready  money  like  some  of  the  folks  round  here. 
Take  Jim  Currier,  for  instance.  When  he  married  he 
didn't  have  any  more  money  or  a  better  farm  than  we, 
but  now  he  could  buy  us  out  three  times  over." 

By  this  time  mother  had  finished  her  dishes  and  taken 
up  her  basket  of  mending,  but  she  hadn't  finished  what 
she  wanted  to  say. 

"Business  men  have  to  keep  a  strict  account  of  every 
cent  and  every  bit  of  time  that  is  spent  on  a  job,  and  if 
they  aren't  making  a  good  profit  in  one  way  they  try 


KEEPING  ACCOUNTS  153 

another.  I  can't  see,  for  the  life  of  me,  why  that  isn't 
the  way  to  do  farming." 

To  my  surprise,  father  seemed  quite  impressed  by 
mother's  remarks,  and  when  she  suggested  that  they 
start  in  at  once  to  keep  accounts  of  everything,  he  said 
he  was  willing  if  she  would  be  the  bookkeeper. 

From  that  day  each  member  of  the  house,  even  I,  had 
to  write  down  at  the  end  of  the  week  the  time  and  money 
spent  for  anything  and  everything.  Of  course,  I  didn't 
have  any  money,  but  I  had  to  keep  the  wood-boxes  full 
and  to  feed  the  hens,  and  so  I  put  down  how  much  and 
what  kind  of  wood  we  burned  in  a  week,  and  measured 
out  carefully  every  bit  of  meal  and  other  food  given  to 
the  hens. 

Mother  laughed  when  I  asked  her  if  she  didn't  want 
me  to  keep  account  of  how  much  the  different  hens 
ate.  There  was  one  hen  that  I  called  "  Greedy  Goggle- 
Eyes."  Her  eyes  seemed  popping  out  of  her  head  and 
she  always  ate  twice  as  much  as  any  other  hen,  and  I 
ached  to  report  her  as  too  extravagant  for  our  eco- 
nomical farm. 

Every  Saturday  night  we  had  what  father  said  was  a 
meeting  of  the  Home  Bank  directors.  He  called  him- 
self president,  mother  treasurer,  and  us  boys  tellers.  I 
didn't  know  then  what  a  teller  was  but  supposed  it  meant 
a  person  who  had  to  tell  what  he  had  done.     So  far  as 


154  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

that  was  concerned;  we  were  all  tellers — father  as  well 
as  we  boys. 

To  father's  surprise  he  discovered  that  he  could  sell 
the  cedar  posts  at  four  cents  a  foot  and  still  make  a  profit 
of  two  cents,  but  he  decided  to  hold  on  to  all  the  spruces 
that  were  still  standing.  Another  discovery  that  we 
made  was  that  we  could  save  on  our  stove  wood  by  using 
pruned  apple  limbs  for  our  open  Franklin  grate  in  the 
sitting-room.  We  had  always  let  these  go  to  waste 
before,  but  in  some  paper  we  read  that  apple  wood  made 
a  hot,  nice-smelling  fire,  and  we  found  that  it  did. 

Another  thing  that  keeping  accounts  showed  us  was 
that  we  had  too  many  hens  for  profit.  In  summer  we 
could  dispose  of  all  our  eggs,  for  some  of  our  farmer 
neighbors  kept  boarders,  but  in  the  winter  the  little 
country  store  wouldn't  take  them  even  in  exchange  for 
other  things.  Those  were  the  days  before  there  was  any 
such  thing  as  parcel  post  or  keeping  eggs  in  cold  storage, 
and  we  were  fifteen  miles  from  a  large  town — too  far  to 
do  peddling  in  the  winter.  So  we  decided  to  keep  down 
the  number  of  inhabitants  of  our  hen-yard,  and  Greedy 
Goggle-Eyes  one  Sunday  made  us  a  very  good  dinner. 

We  bought  another  cow,  although  we  already  had  six, 
for  mother  said  she  could  alwavs  sell  more  butter  than 
we  made,  and  she  knew  how  to  pack  it  away  in  the  cellar 
so  that  it  would  keep  for  a  long  time. 


KEEPING  ACCOUNTS  155 

The  result  of  our  keeping  accounts  was  almost  unbe- 
lievable. By  the  time  I  was  twelve  years  old  father  was 
paying  me  two  dollars  a  month — he  said  that  I  was 
worth  that  in  addition  to  my  board  and  clothes — and 
I  had  not  only  the  proper  kind  of  baseball  mit;  but  one 
of  the  finest  kits  of  tools  in  the  neighborhood.  From  the 
day  that  we  began  to  put  down  just  what  money  came 
in,  what  we  spent  for  food  for  ourselves  and  for  the  hens, 
cows,  horses,  etc.,  how  much  time  the  different  tasks 
took,  we  ceased  to  be  really  poor. 

As  father  said,  we  no  longer  had  any  "deadheads" 
even  among  the  hens. 

From  that  day  to  this  I  have  put  down  on  paper  eveiy 
cent  of  money  that  came  into  my  hands,  and  have  kept 
a  memorandum  of  what  was  done  with  it.  This  is  what 
every  family  ought  to  do,  whether  poor  or  rich.  No  one 
has  so  much  money  that  he  would  not  like  more,  and  the 
only  way  to  get  more  is  not  to  waste  or  spend  any  fool- 
ishly. 

I  don't  believe  that  a  person  need  ever  get  in  debt  if 
he  keeps  account  of  all  his  money.  Of  course,  in  the  case 
of  accidents  or  sudden  illness  it  may  not  be  possible  to 
pay  the  doctor  at  once.  But  there  is  nothing  meaner 
than  to  let  such  bills  run  on  month  after  month  and 
year  after  year.  Instead  of  uselessly  worrying  about 
doctor's  bills,  families  should  look  over  their  weekly  ex- 


156  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

pense  accounts  to  see  how  they  can  best  save  a  few  dol- 
lars a  week. 

I  know  a  family  that  has  had  a  great  deal  of  extra 
expense  because  of  sickness,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
economize  somewhere,  so  each  member  of  the  family 
was  asked  to  save  all  that  he  could.  The  mother  looked 
over  her  grocery  accounts  and  reported  that  if  each  per- 
son would  eat  a  little  less  sugar  and  butter,  would  go 
without  coffee  except  on  Sunday  mornings,  and  would 
be  willing  to  have  more  stew  meat  and  less  roast  meat, 
she  could  save  at  least  a  dollar  a  week.  Now,  if  this 
woman  had  not  kept  an  account  of  how  much  sugar, 
butter,  eggs,  etc.,  she  used,  she  would  not  have  known 
where  she  could  cut  down  expenses. 

The  father  decided  that  he  would  shave  himself,  black 
his  own  boots  instead  of  patronizing  the  shine  parlor,  go 
without  dessert  with  his  noon  lunch,  have  his  every-day 
boots  tapped  a  second  time  instead  of  buying  new  ones, 
and  wait  a  year  before  buying  a  new  overcoat. 

The  oldest  daughter,  who  was  sixteen  years  old,  said 
that  she  would  get  up  a  half-hour  earlier  in  the  morning 
so  that  she  could  walk  to  school  instead  of  riding,  and 
thus  save  twenty-five  cents  a  week,  and  would  take  her 
lunch  from  home  and  save  fifty  cents  a  week. 

The  eighteen-year-old  son  was  the  only  member  of  the 
family  who  had  not  kept  accounts,  and  he  was  the  only 


KEEPING  ACCOUNTS  157 

one  who  declared  that  he  could  not  save  a  cent.  But  he 
finally  promised  to  save  at  least  twenty-five  cents  a 
week   ' '  somehow. ' ' 

The  result  was  that  the  doctor  was  paid  three  dollars 
eveiy  week,  and  sometimes  four,  until  the  full  bill  was 
settled. 

I  know  a  poor  woman  who  always  had  such  a  cheer- 
ful, prosperous  look  that  I  often  wondered  what  was  the 
secret  of  it.  Her  husband  was  dead  and  she  had  two  chil- 
dren to  support.  One  day  I  said:  "You  must  be  a  good 
manager,  Mrs.  Freeman,  to  keep  your  family  so  pros- 
perous." 

"We  do  have  enough  to  eat  and  to  wear,  and  a  nice 
sunny  flat/'  she  said;  "but  it  takes  careful  planning. 
Once  I  thought  it  would  be  extravagant  to  live  in  a  clean 
flat  on  a  good  street,  but  I  found  that  if  I  planned  right 
we  could  do  it.  I  never  used  to  pay  more  than  eighteen 
dollars  a  month  for  rent;  now  I  pay  twenty-five  dollars, 
and  have  good  neighbors.  You  see,  I  let  one  of  the  big 
sunny  rooms  for  three  dollars  a  week;  that  pays  the 
difference  in  my  rent  and  more  than  pays  for  the  gas. 
Then  my  daughter  Helen,  by  wheeling  a  neighbor's 
baby  after  school  every  day  and  on  Saturday  after- 
noons, gets  a  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  a  week,  and 
Bobbie  still  has  his  paper  route  from  which  he  clears 
about  two  dollars  a  week.     I  work  mornings  at  Mrs. 


158  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

Gallup's  dressmaking  shop,  and  take  home  work  to  do 
evenings.  Mrs.  Gallup  can  always  depend  on  me,  so 
she  pays  me  well." 

Here  she  began  to  fumble  in  her  bag,  and  pulled  out 
a  square  yellow  envelope.  "You  wouldn't  expect  that 
a  woman  like  me  would  have  money  in  the  bank,  would 
you?"  she  asked.  "But  I  have,"  and  she  opened  the 
book  and  pointed  proudly  to  the  figures  which  showed 
that  her  bank  account  amounted  to  ninety-eight  dol- 
lars. 

I  asked  her  how  she  had  saved  it,  and  she  replied:  "I 
can't  live  the  way  that  most  folks  do — from  hand  to 
mouth — never  knowing  how  much  money  I  shall  have 
when  rent  day  comes.  I  must  know  where  every  penny 
goes.  I'm  not  much  of  a  hand  at  figuring  on  paper.  I've 
always  kept  things  in  my  head,  but  since  Bobbie  studied 
bookkeeping  at  school,  he  keeps  account  of  his  paper 
money  and  so  I  have  him  do  my  bookkeeping.  Every 
Saturday  he  adds  up  our  expenses,  and  we  plan  what  wTe 
shall  buy  the  next  week.  Of  course,  we  shouldn't  know 
what  we  ought  to  get  unless  we  kept  a  list  of  what  we 
have  on  hand. 

Mrs.  Freeman  again  searched  in  her  bag  and  brought 
out  a  neatly  folded  paper.  "This  is  last  week's  list, 
which  Bobbie  copied  into  our  book,"  she  said  as  she 
handed  it  to  me. 


KEEPING  ACCOUNTS 


159 


Supplies  on  hand 


}/2  bag  pastry  flour 

Barrel  of  bread  flour  (almost 

empty) 
5  lbs.  sugar 
3^  lb.  coffee 
3^2  lb.  cocoa 
34  tub  butter 
8  eggs 

Corn-meal  (all  out) 
1  qt.  molasses 


Vanilla  (almost  gone) 

1  lb.  baking-soda 

1  doz.  bananas  (getting  pretty 

ripe) 
Apples  (out) 
}/2  pk.  onions 
Prunes  (out) 
3^2  gal.  kerosene  oil 
Cold  corned  beef  (enough  for 

three  suppers) 


Cash  on  hand 

Left  over  from  last  week $4 .  00 

From  Mrs.  Gallup 6.00 

For  extra  sewing 7 .  00 

Helen's  money 1 .  25 

Bob's  money 2.00 

Room  rent 3 .  00 

Total $23.25 

To  be  put  aside 

Toward  rent  and  gas $5 .  50 

For  milk  13^  qts.  per  day 1  05 

For  1  bbl.  bread  flour. 6.00 

For  1  bottle  vanilla 20 

For  Y2  bu.  apples 60 

Total $13.35 

Balance 9.90 


"Each  week,"  continued  Mrs.  Freeman,  "I  look  over 
the  list  of  supplies  on  hand,  see  how  much  money  we 


160  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

have,  and  then  decide  what  I  shall  buy  at  once  and 
what  I  shall  let  wait  over  until  the  next  week.  If  the 
price  of  sugar  or  flour,  for  instance,  is  very  high  one 
week,  I  try  in  some  way  to  get  along  until  it  falls  a 
little. 

"We  all  keep  our  eyes  open.  Sometimes  Bob  will  say 
that  at  a  certain  store  he  has  seen  sugar  advertised  at 
five  cents  a  pound,  when  it  is  seven  cents  everywhere 
else.  So  if  our  supply  is  at  all  low  we  buy  it  there  at  five 
cents. 

"Oh,  there  are  many  ways  of  making  ends  meet. 
The  pity  is  that  so  few  people  know  how  to  do  it." 

I  once  knew  of  a  school  in  which  every  pupil  in  grades 
five  to  eight  kept  an  expense  account  from  September 
until  school  closed  in  June.  Each  boy  and  girl  kept  two 
accounts,  one  of  all  the  money  received  and  spent,  and 
the  other  of  the  money  spent  either  by  the  pupil  him- 
self, or  by  his  parents  for  him,  on  clothes,  amusements, 
etc.  A  prize  was  offered  for  the  best-kept  account-book, 
but  there  were  so  many  good  books  that  at  the  last  it 
was  necessary  to  divide  the  prize-money  into  five  parts. 
Only  ten  pupils  showed  books  that  were  called  poor. 
The  principal  considered  the  accounts  so  interesting 
that  he  showed  some  of  them  to  the  editor  of  the  city's 
daily  paper,  and  the  three  boys  and  the  two  girls  who 


KEEPING  ACCOUNTS  161 

won  the  prizes  were  surprised  one  day  to  see  their  pic- 
tures in  print;  and  under  the  pictures  this  sentence  in 
bold;  black  type:  Five  young  people  who  will  some  day 
be  successful  business  men  and  women. 


XVI 
THE  COST  OF  CARELESSNESS  AND  NEGLECT 

One  morning  a  street-car  conductor  forgot  to  supply 
his  car  with  an  extra  fuse,  and  when  half-way  into  the 
city  there  was  a  flash  of  flames  and  a  burst  of  smoke, 
and  everybody  knew  that  a  fuse  had  burned  out.  The 
conductor  and  motorman  stood  around,  seeming  not  to 
know  what  to  do. 

"  What's  the  matter  ?"  asked  a  business  man  impa- 
tiently.    " Haven't  you  an  extra  fuse?" 

"No,  we  haven't,"  snapped  the  conductor. 

It  was  fifteen  minutes  before  another  car  came  up,  and 
after  some  time  was  coupled  to  the  disabled  car  and 
pushed  it  into  the  city.  More  than  thirty  business  men, 
women,  and  girls  were  made  a  half-hour  late  at  their 
work,  and  to  workers  who  hold  important  positions  a 
half-hour  often  means  the  loss  of  many  dollars'  worth  of 
business.  The  world  cannot  wait  for  disabled  cars  and 
careless  conductors.  Of  course,  the  conductor  was  re- 
ported to  the  company,  which  suspended  him  for  three 
days,  with  loss  of  pay. 

There  are  few  persons  who  can  afford  to  let  their  care- 

162 


CARELESSNESS  AND  NEGLECT    163 

lessness  cost  them  even  twenty-five  cents.  Yet,  if  the 
truth  were  known,  probably  most  families  lose  at  least  a 
dollar  a  week  either  through  carelessness  or  through  for- 
get fulness.  One  day  after  school  a  girl  had  wheeled  her 
two-year-old  brother  out  in  the  baby-carriage.  When, 
at  supper  time,  her  mother  asked  if  she  had  put  the  car- 
riage into  the  basement,  she  said  she  had  not  but  would 
after  supper.  That  night  it  rained,  and  the  next  morn- 
ing it  was  a  dismayed  girl  who  found  the  carriage  soaked 
through.  The  cushions  had  to  be  recovered  and  the 
wicker  top  restained.  Her  forgetfulness  cost  her  parents 
almost  three  dollars  in  money  besides  time  and  bother. 

"I  wish  I  could  earn  as  much  as  Mary  Davenport/5 
said  Elsie  Parkhurst  one  day  to  a  friend.  "She  must  get 
at  least  five  dollars  a  week  more  than  I  do,  and  I'm  sure 
she  doesn't  work  a  bit  harder." 

Both  Mary  Davenport  and  Elsie  Parkhurst  were 
stenographers  who  earned  good  salaries,  but  Elsie  was 
wrong  in  thinking  that  her  friend  was  paid  more  than 
she.  Mary  received  only  twelve  dollars  a  week  and 
Elsie  fifteen,  but  Mary  was  careful,  accurate,  and  never 
forgetful.  Although  Elsie  did  not  realize  it,  she  wasted 
nearly  three  dollars  a  week  by  her  habits  of  carelessness. 
One  morning  when  she  reached  her  office  she  was  an- 
noyed to  find  that  she  had  either  forgotten  to  bring  a 
handkerchief  from  home  or  had  lost  it  on  the  way.    So 


164  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

she  sent  the  office  boy  to  buy  her  a  fifteen-cent  one  at 
the  nearest  dry-goods  store,  and  gave  him  ten  cents  for 
his  trouble. 

Another  time,  just  before  five  o'clock,  she  discovered 
that  she  had  forgotten  to  send  out  some  important  let- 
ters in  which  checks  were  to  be  enclosed.  She  stayed 
until  six  o'clock  to  write  the  letters,  but  did  not  know 
what  to  do  about  the  checks,  for  only  her  employer  and 
the  head  bookkeeper  had  the  power  to  sign  them.  Fi- 
nally, she  telephoned  to  the  bookkeeper  and  asked  if  she 
could  bring  the  checks  out  to  his  house  for  him  to  sign. 
The  letters  were  mailed  that  evening,  but  it  had  cost 
Elsie  ten  cents  extra  for  car-fare  and  twenty-five  cents 
for  her  supper,  which  she  had  to  eat  at  a  restaurant  in- 
stead of  at  home. 

At  still  another  time  Elsie  accepted  an  invitation  to 
dinner,  but  forgot  all  about  it  until  the  next  day.  She 
was  so  ashamed  of  her  forgetfulness  that  during  her  noon 
hour  she  went  to  a  florist's  and  bought  a  dollar's  worth 
of  rosebuds,  which  she  sent,  with  a  note  of  apology,  to 
her  friend. 

Several  years  passed  and  Mary  was  raised  to  twenty 
dollars  a  week,  while  Elsie  was  still  receiving  only  fifteen. 
One  day  Elsie's  employer  told  her  that  unless  she  could 
cure  herself  of  carelessness,  he  would  have  to  get  another 
stenographer. 


CARELESSNESS  AND  NEGLECT  165 

"You  are  neat  and  obliging,  and  a  good  worker/'  he 
said;  "but  your  carelessness  costs  us  much  time  and 
money." 

Many  a  young  person  like  Elsie  fails  to  get  more 
money  in  her  envelope  because  of  careless  habits.  No 
stenographer  who  was  careless  and  forgetful  ever  became 
private  secretary,  and  it  is  the  ambition  of  every  girl 
and  boy  who  studies  stenography  some  day  to  be  a  con- 
fidential secretary  to  an  important  business  or  profes- 
sional man. 

"My  secretary  never  makes  mistakes/ '  said  a  man  to 
a  caller  who  was  making  a  complaint.  "If  my  secretary 
said  that,  it's  so." 

"Ah/'  said  the  other,  "you  are  fortunate.  You  must 
have  to  pay  high  for  such  a  secretary." 

"I  do.  He  has  saved  enough  money  out  of  his  salary 
to  buy  his  way  into  our  firm." 

One  day  the  manager  of  a  large  department  store  was 
showing  a  school  principal  over  the  different  parts  of 
the  store. 

"  I  wish  you  would  teach  your  boys  and  girls  not  to  be 
careless  and  forgetful,"  said  the  manager.  "We  have  a 
large  number  of  bright  grammar  and  high  school  gradu- 
ates in  our  store,  but  some  of  the  very  brightest  ones 
fail  to  get  promoted  rapidly  because  they  forget  little 
things. 


166  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"See  that  boy  at  the  silk  counter?"  he  said,  point- 
ing to  an  eighteen-year-old  boy  who  was  showing  goods 
to  a  woman.  "Everybody  likes  him.  He  almost  always 
makes  a  sale;  in  fact,  he  sells  more  goods  than  any  other 
clerk  at  that  counter,  but  he  is  an  expensive  clerk.  We 
may  have  to  let  him  go,  although  I  mean  to  give  him  a 
fair  chance." 

Seeing  the  principal's  look  of  inquiry,  the  manager  ex- 
plained: 

"Why,  he  makes  this  kind  of  mistakes:  when  goods 
are  to  be  delivered,  he  often  gets  the  address  wrong,  and 
there  is  hardly  a  day  that  he  doesn't  make  a  mistake  in 
his  cash  slips.  Then  one  time  he  sent  out  an  order  that 
was  a  yard  short.  It  cost  us  a  lot  of  time  and  bother  to 
make  the  order  right,  for  we  were  out  of  the  goods  when 
the  customer  reported  the  error,  and  had  to  send  to  the 
manufacturer  for  it. 

"We  pay  him  ten  dollars  a  week,  but  if  he  didn't  make 
mistakes  he'd  be  getting  fifteen,  and  would  stand  a  good 
chance  of  being  head  of  his  department.  So  you  see  his 
carelessness  costs  him  at  least  two  hundred  and  sixty 
dollars  a  year.  Pretty  expensive  for  a  young  man,  isn't 
it?" 

The  principal  was  so  much  impressed  with  the  stoiy 
that  the  next  day  when  he  paid  his  visit  to  the  different 
rooms  of  his  school  he  told  about  the  expensive  clerk. 


CARELESSNESS  AND  NEGLECT    167 

"Now,  I  want  you  all  to  test  yourselves/'  he  said,  "to 
find  out  how  careless  or  forgetful  you  are.  For  one  week 
I  am  going  to  ask  you  to  write  down  on  a  slip  of  paper 
all  the  mistakes  that  you  make  and  all  the  things  that 
you  forget.  Hand  the  papers  to  your  teacher  and  she 
will  show  them  to  me." 

At  the  end  of  the  week  when  the  principal  visited  the 
rooms  he  took  two  papers  from  his  pocket. 

"I  shall  not  tell  you  whose  papers  these  are,"  he  said, 
"but  they  are  the  two  worst  ones  handed  in." 

This  was  the  first  paper: 

Monday.  Forgot  to  get  mother  a  yeast-cake,  so 
we  had  to  buy  an  extra  loaf  of  bread  from  the  baker's. 

Tuesday.  Mother  let  me  wear  her  watch  to  school 
today.  I  hit  it  against  the  desk  and  it  has  stopped 
now.    Father  is  going  to  take  it  to  the  jeweler. 

Wednesday.  Mother  wanted  me  to  be  excused 
this  afternoon  so  that  I  could  stay  with  the  baby 
while  she  did  some  shopping.  I  lost  the  excuse,  and 
didn't  dare  to  ask  Miss  Adams. 

Thursday.  I  forgot  to  take  my  language  exercise 
to  school,  but  I  wrote  it  out  again  before  class. 

Friday.  I  can't  find  my  pen.  I  think  somebody 
borrowed  it  from  mv  desk  and  forgot  to  return  it. 

Saturday.     Went  to  see  Mabel  Stevens  this  after- 


168  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

npon.    We  made  some  fudge,  but  it  wasn't  very  good 
because  we  burned  it. 

Sunday.  Left  my  handkerchief  at  Mabel's. 
Didn't  go  to  Sunday-school  after  all.  When  I  got 
all  ready  to  go  mother  said  there  was  a  big  paint 
spot  on  my  dress.  I  got  it  on  last  week  but  forgot 
to  tell  mother  about  it. 

"Now/'  said  the  principal,  "this  pupil's  negligence  cost 
at  least  a  dollar,  and  probably  more.  Jewelers  seldom 
charge  less  than  a  dollar  for  repairing  a  watch,  and  a  loaf 
of  bread  costs  ten  cents.  Perhaps  this  is  all  the  money 
that  was  wasted,  but  time  was  wasted  and  trouble  was 
certainly  caused  by  this  girl.  If  she  doesn't  change  her 
habits,  she  will  have  difficulty  in  getting  a  good  position 
when  she  is  out  of  school." 

The  other  paper  was  a  boy's: 

Monday.  Forgot  my  handkerchief,  but  one  of 
the  fellows  cut  his  in  two.  I  suppose  I  ought  to  give 
him  one  of  mine  to  make  up. 

Tuesday.  Took  my  history  home  last  night  and 
forgot  it  this  morning.  Guess  I  got  F  in  recitation — 
I  didn't  know  the  lesson  very  well. 

Wednesday.  Can't  find  my  bat.  My  sister  says 
I  left  it  out  beside  the  road.  If  I  did  somebody  has 
stolen  it.    I  call  that  mean. 


CARELESSNESS  AND  NEGLECT    169 

Thursday.  Forgot  to  go  to  the  Chinaman's  for 
father's  collars.    Father  didn't  like  it  very  well. 

Friday.     Remembered  ever}i:hmg. 

Saturday.  Had  to  saw  wood  this  morning.  I  had 
forgotten  to  get  the  saw  sharpened,  but  mother  made 
me  saw  just  the  same.    It  took  twice  as  long. 

As  the  principal  folded  these  papers  and  slipped  them 
into  his  pocket,  he  said:  "I  suppose  this  boy  didn't  waste 
much  money,  but  the  clerk  that  the  manager  pointed 
out  to  me  was  probably  just  such  a  boy  as  this.  I  think 
it  would  be  a  good  idea  for  all  of  you  to  continue  putting 
down  on  paper  the  things  that  you  forget,  and  the  mis- 
takes that  you  make.  In  this  way  you  may  cure  your- 
selves." 

In  the  town  of  Oxford  in  a  Western  State  there  was 
one  family  that  always  seemed  to  be  poor.  The  man 
earned  good  wages  as  foreman  in  a  factory,  and  his  wife 
did  her  own  work.  But  they  were  often  in  debt  and 
never  seemed  to  get  ahead. 

"It's  no  wTonder,"  said  one  man,  "they  never  plan, 
and  they  live  in  a  happy-go-lucky  fashion.  One  day  his 
wife  spoiled  three  loaves  of  bread  because  when  she  put 
them  into  the  oven  she  failed  to  shut  the  door  tight. 
She  often  leaves  her  washing  out  on  the  lines  two  or  three 
days,  and  of  course  things  blow  away  or  are  stolen.    She 


170  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

and  her  children  have  good  enough  clothes;  but  there  is 
usually  a  button  gone  or  some  lace  torn." 

"Yes,"  said  another,  " they're  not  very  business-like. 

Mr.  M was  just  ordering  his  coal  last  week,  and  I 

asked  him  why  he  didn't  do  that  the  week  before  when 
coal  was  fifty  cents  a  ton  cheaper.  '  Forgot  all  about  it/ 
he  said.  The  doctor  told  me  their  youngest  boy  wouldn't 
have  had  pneumonia  if  he  hadn't  got  his  feet  soaking 
wet  one  day  because  he  had  no  rubbers.  Probably  the 
only  reason  the  little  fellow  didn't  have  rubbers  was  be- 
cause his  mother  had  neglected  to  buy  them.  It's  too 
bad.    I'm  sorry  for  the  children." 

And  yet  this  foreman  and  his  wife  were  always  talking 
of  their  "hard  luck." 

Post-office  clerks  know  something  about  mistakes  due 
to  carelessness.  In  one  year  out  of  the  2,500,000,000 
pieces  of  mail  that  the  Chicago  post-office  handled,  the 
clerks  made  only  one  mistake  for  each  27,130  pieces, 
while  more  than  10,000,000  mistakes  were  made  by  the 
people  in  addressing  or  stamping  their  mail.  If  a  letter 
is  worth  writing,  it  is  certainly  worth  the  time  and  care 
necessary  to  address  it  correctly  and  put  on  it  the  right 
amount  of  postage.  A  letter  may  not  cost  more  than 
three  cents,  but  no  one  can  afford  to  waste  even  this 
small  amount. 

Another  illustration  of  forgetfulness  and  carelessness 


CARELESSNESS  AND  NEGLECT    171 

is  the  "Lost"  department  of  a  street-car  or  railroad  com- 
pany. One  day,  when  a  man  inquired  at  a  branch  office 
of  the  electric-car  company  of  a  large  city  for  a  lost 
umbrella,  the  clerk  said:  "Shouldn't  wonder  if  it  was 
here.  We've  got  a  hundred  and  thirty  umbrellas." 
And,  opening  a  closet,  he  showed  the  astonished  man 
row  after  row  of  umbrellas  of  every  shape  and  quality. 

"Queer  what  makes  people  so  careless/'  said  the  clerk, 
"and  queerer  still  that  so  many  never  come  to  claim 
their  property." 

"Well,  what's  their  loss  is  your  gain,"  returned  the 
man. 

"Not  a  bit  of  it,"  replied  the  clerk.  "We  can't  get 
much  for  this  stuff  even  if  we  sell  it,  and,  anyw-ay,  it 
wouldn't  be  enough  to  pay  my  salary  and  the  rent  of 
this  room." 

Many  a  position  has  been  lost,  many  a  dollar  has  been 
wasted,  many  a  heart  has  ached — all  because  of  a  little 
mistake  or  a  careless  moment. 


XVII 
LEAVING  SCHOOL 

One  day  Miss  Humphrey  reported  to  the  principal 
that  Richard  Davis  had  left  school  to  go  to  work. 

"It  bothers  me/'  she  said,  " because  I  don't  think  it 
is  at  all  necessary.  Of  course,  his  family  aren't  rich,  but 
his  father  owns  a  small  corner  grocery  store,  and  they 
seem  to  have  plenty  to  eat  and  to  wear.  I  talked  with 
him,  and  he  said  he  was  tired  of  school  and  wanted  to 
get  a  position.    Shall  I  see  his  father  about  it?" 

"I'll  think  about  it  and  let  you  know  tomorrow,"  was 
the  principal's  reply. 

Miss  Humphrey  was  not  the  only  person  interested 
in  Richard  Davis's  decision.  Richard  was  quite  the 
hero  among  a  small  group  of  boys,  and  that  night  one 
of  his  schoolmates,  Charles  Little,  announced  at  the  sup- 
per-table that  he  wanted  to  leave  school  and  go  to  work. 

"What's  that?"  said  his  father,  "are  you  beginning 
to  know  too  much?" 

Charles  was  a  little  abashed,  but  he  said:  "I'm  old 
enough  to  go  to  work,  and  I  don't  see  the  use  in  keeping 

172 


LEAVING  SCHOOL  173 

on  studying  arithmetic  and  language.  I  know  enough 
now  to  get  a  job." 

"Well,  son,  you'd  make  a  great  big  mistake,  if  you  quit 
school  now.  I  suppose  you  know  as  well  as  I  do  that  I'm 
a  poor  man,  but  perhaps  you  didn't  know  that  it's  just 
because  when  I  was  your  age  I  had  to  leave  school  and 
go  to  work.  I  never  had  a  chance  to  learn  a  trade  or  to 
do  anything  just  right.  In  our  shop  the  other  day  the 
boss's  son  started  in  to  work  his  way  up.  I've  been  there 
for  fifteen  years  and  know  something  about  the  business, 
but  that  young  fellow  is  going  to  beat  us  all  out.  And 
do  you  know  why?  It's  because  he's  stayed  in  school 
and  learned  how  to  use  his  brains." 

Charles  saw  that  it  was  useless  to  argue  with  his 
father,  but  he  looked  far  from  cheerful. 

"Of  course,  if  you're  too  stupid  to  learn  your  lessons, 
I  will  take  you  out  of  school,  but  so  far  as  I  can  make 
out  you've  got  a  fair  amount  of  brains,  and  if  I  keep  my 
job  and  health,  you'll  stay  on  at  school  a  while  longer." 

The  next  morning,  after  recess,  the  principal  told  Miss 
Humphrey  that  he  wished  to  talk  with  her  pupils  about 
"jobs."    Tins  is  what  he  said: 

"Yesterday  I  had  occasion  to  go  to  the  top  floor  of  a 
nine-story  building  and  on  my  way  up  chatted  with  the 
elevator  boy.  I  asked  him  if  he  liked  his  work  and  he 
said  no,  he  wanted  to  get  into  something  else  as  soon  as 


174  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

possible.  He  is  sixteen  years  old  and  this  is  his  third  job 
since  leaving  the  grammar-school.  He  is  paid  six  dollars 
a  week,  and  there  isn't  any  chance  of  his  getting  more. 
When  I  asked  him  what  kind  of  work  he  was  going  to 
look  for  next  he  didn't  seem  to  know. 

"After  leaving  the  building,  I  stepped  into  an  em- 
ployment bureau,  and  asked  the  manager  what  sort  of 
position  he  could  find  for  an  elevator  boy  who  didn't 
know  how  to  do  any  other  kind  of  work,  and  had  never 
been  graduated  from  the  grammar-school.  His  reply 
wasn't  very  encouraging.     He  said: 

" '  There  is  nothing  better  for  him  than  the  elevator.  I 
don't  see  what  these  boys'  parents  are  thinking  of  to  send 
them  to  work  before  they  have  finished  school.  If  I  had 
a  son  who  wouldn't  stay  in  school,  I'd  put  him  out  to 
learn  a  trade.  He'd  have  to  learn  how  to  do  some  one 
thing  thoroughly,  whether  it  was  clerking  in  a  store  or 
laying  bricks.  A  boy  who  can't  do  something  has  wasted 
himself.' 

"Just  think,"  continued  the  principal,  "what  a  waste 
of  brains  it  is  for  a  boy  to  do  nothing  nine  hours  every 
day,  year  in  and  year  out,  but  stand  in  an  elevator  mov- 
ing the  wheel  or  lever,  and  opening  and  shutting  the 
door.  It  is  much  the  same  in  a  mill.  The  boy  does  some 
one  simple  thing  all  day  long;  the  task  may  require 
quickness  and  accuracy,  but  that  is  all. 


LEAVING  SCHOOL  175 

"After  what  the  manager  of  the  employment  bureau 
told  me  I  feel  very  much  discouraged;  for  a  great  many 
of  the  boys  here  are  planning  to  go  to  work  next  year. 

"When  you  get  through  the  grammar-school  you 
haven't  had  arithmetic  enough  to  make  you  good  book- 
keepers or  cashiers,  or  enough  English  to  make  you  use- 
ful stenographers  or  salesmen;  and  you  don't  know 
enough  about  any  trade  to  earn  your  living  at  that.  But 
every  town  and  city  must  have  plumbers,  carpenters, 
cabinetmakers,  wood-workers,  machinists,  tailors,  paint- 
ers, paper-hangers,  masons.  Therefore,  if  you  must 
leave  before  finishing  the  grammar-school,  you  should  de- 
cide on  some  such  occupation  and  either  go  to  a  school 
where  you  will  learn  the  trade  or  find  some  employer  who 
will  agree  to  teach  you  and  pay  you  a  little  while  you 
are  learning. 

"But  remember  that  time  spent  in  getting  ready  to 
earn  your  living  is  never  wasted.  Every  lesson  in  geog- 
raphy, history,  and  the  government  of  your  country  is 
training  your  brains  and  giving  you  ideas;  every  example 
in  arithmetic  that  you  solve  alone  helps  you  to  be  accu- 
rate and  careful ;  every  composition  that  you  write,  every 
exercise  in  grammar  that  you  do,  makes  it  easier  for  you 
to  speak  well. 

"In  a  large  department  store  a  new  clerk  was  recently 
advertised  for.    One  of  the  boys  who  did  not  get  the  posi- 


176  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

tion  went  to  the  store  manager  and  said:  'I  wish  you'd 
tell  me  why  I  didn't  get  the  job.  I  am  honest,  strong, 
quick,  and  like  to  work.    My  references  are  of  the  best.' 

"'Yes/  replied  the  manager,  consulting  his  records. 
'  The  only  thing  against  you  is  your  English.  Your  gram- 
mar is  very  bad,  and  you  use  a  great  deal  of  slang.  In 
our  store  we  cater  to  only  the  best  class  of  people,  and  it 
is  a  rule  here  that  our  clerks  must  be  able  to  speak  as 
well  as  our  customers.  I  like  your  manner,  and  I  think 
you  would  make  a  good  salesman.  When  you  have 
learned  how  to  speak  correctly,  come  back  to  me.' 

"This  young  man  left  school  too  soon,  and  instead  of 
saving  time  he  wasted  it. 

"'The  most  pitiful  thing  to  me/  said  the  manager  of 
the  employment  bureau,  'is  the  large  number  of  mar- 
ried men  who  are  out  of  work  so  much  of  the  time.  And 
almost  all  of  them  never  learned  a  trade  or  a  business 
when  they  were  boys.  The  only  kind  of  work  they  can 
get  is  odd  jobs  that  any  one  can  do.' 

"All  that  I  or  your  teachers  can  do  for  you,"  said  the 
principal  in  concluding  his  talk,  "is  to  urge  you  either  to 
go  on  to  the  high  school  or  to  find  some  way  of  learning 
thoroughly  a  trade  before  you  try  to  earn  your  living. 
If  you  and  your  parents  are  in  doubt  what  you  should 
do,  then  remain  at  school  until  you  can  decide.  It  is 
better  to  be  in  school  learning  something  than  to  be  run- 


LEAVING  SCHOOL  177 

ning  errands  at  three  dollars  a  week  and  learning  noth- 
ing. 

"Much  that  I  have  said  to  the  boys/'  the  principal 
explained;  "applies  to  the  girls  also.  Stay  in  school  as 
long  as  you  can,  and  whatever  you  do,  don't  waste  your- 
selves. Either  in  school  or  at  home,  learn  to  mend,  and 
sew,  and  cook,  for  these  are  things  that  all  girls  should 
know  how  to  do  well.  I  hope  that  each  one  of  you  will 
some  day  be  in  a  home  of  your  own,  and  when  you  are 
you  will  need  to  know  dressmaking,  cooking,  and  clean- 
ing. 

"If  you  want  to  be  a  stenographer,  or  a  bookkeeper, 
or  an  office  assistant,  remember  that  every  year  you 
spend  at  school  increasing  your  stock  of  information 
and  your  knowledge  of  English  is  not  time  wasted,  but 
saved. 

"A  man  that  I  know  conducts  a  typewriting  bureau, 
in  which  he  employs  about  fifty  girls.  One  day  I  asked 
him  how  much  he  paid  them.  He  amazed  me  by  say- 
ing, 'I  start  most  of  my  girls  at  three  dollars  a  week.' 
He  saw  my  astonishment,  and  said: 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  most  of  the  girls  who  apply  for 
positions  aren't  worth  that.  They  have  never  been  to 
high  school;  they  can't  spell;  and  it  is  utterly  impos- 
sible for  them  to  use  correct  English.  Some  one  has  to 
look  over  every  letter  they  write.    They  can't  be  trusted 


a 

a  c 


178  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

even  to  answer  the  telephone  and  take  down  messages. 
They  don't  know  such  simple  words  as  practicable.  I 
set  them  to  copying  at  first,  and  one  hour  a  day  I  have 
a  class  in  English  for  them.  You  see  I  have  to  do  what 
their  teachers  would  have  done  if  the  girls  had  stayed 
in  school  longer.  Occasionally  a  bright  high-school  girl, 
who  has  also  spent  a  year  in  a  business  college,  applies 
for  a  position,  and  I  start  her  at  eight  dollars,  advanc- 
ing her  just  as  soon  as  she  learns  my  business.  I  have 
several  stenographers  who  are  earning  twenty  dollars  a 
week,  but  all  of  them  are  high-school  graduates.' 

"It  is  the  same  with  bookkeeping  and  office  work. 
The  grammar-school  hasn't  had  time  to  teach  you  all 
that  you  need  to  know  to  be  valuable  in  an  office.  There 
are  some  office  positions  that  pay  twelve,  fifteen,  or  more 
dollars  a  week,  but  it  is  seldom  that  the  girl  who  has 
gone  no  farther  than  the  grammar-school  ever  gets  these. 
The  girls  who  are  advanced  the  most  rapidly  are  those 
who  have  had  the  best  training.  You  will  make  a 
mistake  if  you  do  not  spend  all  the  time  possible  in 
school. 

"I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  boy  who  leaves  school 
and  goes  to  work  at  thirteen  can  never  be  a  successful 
man.  A  really  plucky  boy  wTho  must  go  to  work  to  help 
out  at  home  can  of  course  attend  the  evening  school. 
But  it  takes  many  winters  of  evening-school  work  to 


LEAVING  SCHOOL    .  179 

equal  one  year  of  regular  day  work  at  the  high  school  or 
at  the  trade  school.  The  evening  school  is  a  help,  but  it 
cannot  take  the  place  of  a  good  day-school  course. 

"I  have  asked  at  least  twenty  business  men  what 
chance  boys  or  girls  would  have  in  their  establishments 
if  they  had  not  been  farther  than  the  grammar-school. 
One  man  said:  'Why,  we  never  expect  anything  from  a 
boy  unless  he  is  at  least  a  high-school  graduate.  And  we 
prefer  boys  that  have  had  some  experience  in  addition 
to  this.' 

"Another  said:  'We  never  hire  any  boy  or  girl  for  any 
kind  of  position  who  cannot  show  a  high-school  diploma/ 

"All  the  men  seemed  to  think  that  the  grammar-school 
pupils  would  find  it  difficult  to  secure  good  positions. 

"The  last  question  that  I  asked  each  of  the  twenty 
men  was :  '  So  you  think  our  boys  and  girls  ought  to  stay 
in  some  kind  of  school  until  they  are  seventeen  or 
eighteen  years  old?' 

"And  the  usual  answer  was:  'Yes,  it  would  be  time 
well  spent/ 

"My  advice  is:  Whatever  you  plan  to  do  or  to  be, 
don't  waste  any  of  the  years.  You  can  never  make  up 
for  lost  time." 

It  was  six  months  after  the  principal  gave  this  talk 
that  one  day  Richard  Davis  and  his  father  appeared  at 
the  principal's  office. 


180  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"  Richard  is  tired  of  working  and  wants  to  come  back 
to  school.    Will  you  take  him?"  asked  Mr.  Davis. 

"That  depends  on  Richard,"  said  the  principal.  "All 
we  insist  on  is  that  he  do  his  best  in  his  studies.  A  dis- 
contented boy  never  gets  much  good  from  his  school." 

"WeB,"  said  Mr.  Davis,  "I  think  Richard  didn't 
know  what  he  was  getting  into.  You  see  I  told  him  if  he 
left  school  he  would  have  to  help  me  in  the  store,  run- 
ning errands.  Perhaps  he  thought  I  should  be  easy  with 
him,  but  I  said  I  would  pay  him  what  I  should  have  to 
pay  any  other  boy,  and  he  would  have  to  work  just  as 
hard  as  another  boy.  He  had  to  be  at  the  store  at  seven 
o'clock,  for  we  sell  milk,  and  many  families  depend  on 
buying  it  from  us  for  their  breakfasts.  Then,  of  course, 
Saturday  afternoons  and  evenings  are  our  busiest  hours, 
so  the  only  time  off  he  had  was  Sundays  and  three  eve- 
nings. Evenings  he  was  too  tired  to  do  anything  but 
go  to  bed." 

"Is  it  your  idea,  Mr.  Davis,"  asked  the  principal,  "to 
have  Richard  come  back  to  school,  or  does  he  himself 
want  to?" 

"It's  this  way.  I  told  him  I  would  give  him  five  dol- 
lars a  week  when  he  had  learned  to  make  change  right. 
But  he  is  slow  in  multiplying  fractions  in  his  head.  He 
makes  many  mistakes,  and  he  decided  that  he'd  better 
go  back  to  school  a  while  longer.    So  now  I've  said  that 


LEAVING  SCHOOL  181 

if  he  will  keep  on  and  go  to  the  high  school  and  take  the 
business  course;  when  he  gets  his  diploma  I'll  make  him 
my  cashier  and  will  start  him  at  ten  dollars  a  week.  The 
cashier  doesn't  begin  work  until  eight  and  has  one  after- 
noon off  every  week." 

"Well,  I'm  glad  Richard  isn't  going  to  waste  himself. 
I'll  help  him  all  I  can/'  was  the  principal's  reply. 

And  when;  five  years  later;  Richard  finished  the  high 
school  he  said,  to  his  father  one  night:  "What  a  crazy 
boy  I  used  to  be.  You  ought  to  have  whipped  me  when 
I  tried  to  leave  school.  I  don't  know  any  too  much  now, 
but  I'm  sure  it  will  be  far  easier  for  me  to  earn  my  liv- 
ing now  than  it  would  have  been  five  years  ago." 

There  are  many  boys  and  girls  who,  like  Richard,  are 
eager  to  get  to  work,  but  it  is  always  a  mistake  to  leave 
school  sooner  than  is  necessary. 

A  girl  who  did  not  like  to  study  but  loved  to  be  with 
children,  recently  got  a  position  as  nursery  governess  to 
two  children  three  and  five  years  old.  She  herself  was 
only  fourteen,  but  she  was  not  afraid  of  work  and  had  a 
sweet,  whining  way  with  the  children.  One  day  the 
woman  who  employed  her  came  to  her  and  said:  "I 
am  sorry,  my  dear,  but  I'm  afraid  I  shall  have  to  find 
some  one  else  to  amuse  the  children.  I  haven't  a  bit  of 
fault  to  find  with  what  you  do  or  the  way  that  you  do  it, 
and  the  children  love  you  dearly.    But  you  constantly 


182  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

use  incorrect  English  and  often  mispronounce  words. 
The  children  will  surely  imitate  your  mistakes,  and  it 
would  take  a  great  deal  of  time  in  later  years  to  correct 
them.  So  I  am  afraid  I  must  get  some  one  who  has  had 
a  better  education." 

This  girl  was  only  one  of  many  who  lose  their  chance 
to  be  most  useful  and  happy  because  they  have  left 
school  too  soon. 


XVIII 
IF  YOU  HAD  A  HUNDRED  DOLLARS 

If  you  had  a  hundred  dollars  given  you,  what  would 
you  do  with  it?  This  was  the  question  that  Miss  Mur- 
ray asked  her  pupils  in  the  seventh  grade  one  afternoon. 
Everybody  was  eager  to  answer  the  question  at  once, 
but  Miss  Murray  shook  her  head. 

"  No,  not  now.  I  want  each  of  you  to  think  about  this 
tonight.  Talk  it  over  with  your  friends  and  your  family, 
and  tomorrow  I  shall  ask  you  to  write  a  short  composi- 
tion answering  the  question.  Then  we  will  have  as  many 
of  the  compositions  read  as  time  will  permit. 

"I  wish  that  before  you  decide  on  anything  you  would 
ask  yourself  two  questions: 

"How  can  I  make  a  hundred  dollars  go  the- farthest  ? 

"How  can  I  spend  it  so  that  some  one  besides  myself 
will  be  benefited? 

"Remember  that  it  is  a  selfish  person  who  thinks  only 
of  himself  when  he  has  money  to  spend. " 

The  next  day  Miss  Murray  gave  her  room  an  hour  in 
which  to  write  the  composition,  and  at  noon  she  looked 

183 


184  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

over  the  papers.  She  smiled  over  some  and  sighed  over 
others.  Several  she  selected  to  read  to  the  class.  Here 
are  quotations  from  them: 

If  I  had  a  hundred  dollars  I  should  buy  a  high- 
priced  phonograph  and  some  good  music  records. 
Everybody  ought  to  love  music,  and  I  know  that  it 
would  give  our  family  lots  of  pleasure.  I  would 
keep  the  phonograph  in  the  parlor  and  after  supper 
father  would  read  his  paper,  mother  would  sew,  and 
I  would  do  the  dishes,  and  we  would  all  be  listening 
to  the  music  at  the  same  time.  This  would  make 
the  time  pass  pleasantly  and  before  I  knew  it  the 
dishes  would  be  done.  I  like  quick  music  because 
it  is  so  cheerful. 

"You  did  not  tell  us,  Ella,  why  you  would  buy  a 
phonograph.  Do  you  think  that  you  and  your  family 
would  get  more  pleasure  and  benefit  from  this  than  from 
anything  else?    Is  there  nothing  that  you  really  need?" 

"No,  Miss  Murray/'  answered  the  girl. 

Here  one  of  the  boys  raised  his  hand  and,  at  a  nod 
from  the  teacher,  said:  "Wouldn't  it  be  a  waste  of  money 
to  spend  all  of  the  hundred  dollars  that  way?  I  know 
a  man  who  paid  only  ten  dollars  for  a  phonograph,  and 
it  is  fine." 


IF  YOU  HAD  A  HUNDRED   DOLLARS    185 

Miss  Murray  said  she  thought  that  if  a  person  intended 
to  buy  a  phonograph  it  was  wise  not  to  get  a  cheap  one. 
"  If  you  are  going  to  have  music  in  your  home  you  want 
it  to  be  as  beautiful  as  possible.  And  a  cheap  phono- 
graph really  makes  dreadful  music.  I  always  think  of 
a  good  phonograph  as  a  luxury,  however,  and  I  shouldn't 
want  to  buy  one  for  my  home  unless  I  was  sure  that  it 
would  give  more  pleasure  than  anything  else." 

"When  mother  was  a  girl  she  used  to  play  on  the 
violin,"  said  Ella.  "She  and  father  both  love  music, 
but  we  can't  afford  a  piano,  and  mother  says  her  fingers 
aren't  limber  enough  to  play  on  the  violin  even  if  she 
had  time  to  practise.  Once  father  said  it  would  be  al- 
most as  good  as  going  to  the  real  grand  opera  to  have  a 
sweet-toned  phonograph." 

"Ella  has  made  a  wise  choice,  after  all,"  said  Miss 
Murray,  "but  probably  it  would  be  foolish  for  the  rest 
of  us  to  spend  our  money  that  way.  I  hope  none  of  you 
are  like  a  woman  that  I  once  knew,  who  had  to  buy 
whatever  her  neighbors  bought,  whether  she  needed  it 
or  really  wanted  it.  She  even  bought  a  piano,  although 
she  had  no  children,  and  neither  she  nor  her  husband 
could  play.  I  think  it  would  be  very  stupid  for  any- 
body to  buy  any  kind  of  musical  instrument  just  to 
entertain  his  friends,  for  many  people  do  not  like 
music." 


186  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

Miss  Murray  then  read  this  paragraph  from  another 
composition : 

If  I  had  a  hundred  dollars  that  I  could  spend  as 
I  liked,  I  should  buy  a  two-year-old  Jersey  cow. 
This  would  be  better  than  putting  the  money  in  the 
bank.  The  bank  would  pay  me  only  four  dollars  a 
year,  but  I  could  make  thirty  dollars  a  year  on  the 
cow  by  turning  the  milk  into  butter  and  selling  that. 
I  could  take  care  of  her  myself. 

This  composition  was  written  by  a  boy  who  lived  sev- 
eral miles  from  town.  He  drove  in  every  morning  with 
his  father,  who  brought  milk  to  the  railroad  for  ship- 
ment. The  boys  were  eager  to  ask  Phil  questions,  so 
Miss  Murray  gave  them  permission. 

"What  should  you  do  with  the  thirty  dollars?"  one 
boy  asked. 

"I  should  put  it  into  the  bank,  and  keep  it  until  I 
had  saved  enough  to  buy  another  cow.  With  two  cows 
I  could  make  sixty  dollars  a  year." 

"What  should  you  do  with  the  money  in  the  bank?" 
asked  another  boy. 

"Father  wants  me  to  go  to  the  agricultural  college 
some  day.  He  says  he  never  had  a  chance  to  learn  to 
do  things  right,  and  he  wants  me  to  be  a  better  farmer 
than  he  has  been." 


IF  YOU  HAD  A  HUNDRED   DOLLARS    187 

"I  should  think  you  would  want  to  save  your  money," 
said  one  boy,  "so  that  you  could  go  to  the  city  to  live. 
Farmers  are  always  poor,  and  they  don't  have  any  fun." 

Here  Miss  Murray  interrupted. 

"I'm  afraid  you  are  only  showing  your  ignorance, 
Albert.  Farming  is  as  much  of  a  science  as  medicine 
or  law,  and  Phil  has  the  right  idea.  Some  of  the  happiest 
and  most  prosperous  people  that  I  know  are  farmers. 
It  is  only  the  lazy  farmer,  or  one  who  has  not  studied 
enough,  who  is  poor.  We  will  talk  about  farming  some 
other  time,  but  now  I  want  you  to  listen  to  this  com- 
position."    And  Miss  Murray  read: 

If  I  had  a  hundred  dollars  I  should  take  my  sister 
Mary  to  the  city  to  see  a  famous  doctor,  who  could 
cure  her.  While  we  were  there  we  would  go  to  the 
museum  and  see  the  stuffed  animals  and  the  glass 
flowers.  We  would  go  to  a  big  restaurant  and  have 
some  ice-cream  and  chocolate  layer-cake.  What 
money  was  left  I  should  put  into  the  bank. 

"Poor  Jack/'  Miss  Murray  had  said  to  herself,  when 
she  first  read  this  composition,  "he  certainly  thinks  a 
great  deal  of  his  sister,  but  I'm  afraid  he  wouldn't  be  a 
wise  spender." 

After  she  had  read  his  composition  to  the  class,  Miss 
Murray  said:   "Please  tell  us,  Jack,  why  you  would  take 


188  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

your  sister  to  a  city  doctor?  Didn't  you  know  that 
good  old  Doctor  Stevens  is  one  of  the  best  doctors  in  this 
part  of  the  country?" 

" I  like  Doctor  Stevens/'  said  Jack  quietly,  "but  he 
doesn't  cure  Mary.  He  only  tells  her  to  drink  milk; 
eat  eggs,  and  stay  out-of-doors." 

"Even  a  city  doctor  might  say  the  same  thing,  Jack. 
Does  Mary  stay  out  in  the  air  most  of  the  time?' 

"She  says  there  is  nothing  to  do  outdoors.  She  gets 
tired  and  would  rather  stay  in  the  house."  replied  the 
boy. 

Miss  Murray  explained  that  when  people  had  lung 
trouble  they  needed  all  the  fresh  air  they  could  get. 
Medicines  and  city  doctors  could  not  help  them.  "If  I 
were  in  Jack's  place  and  had  a  hundred  dollars,  I  should 
build  a  little  piazza  out  of  Mary's  room,  where  she  could 
sit  during  the  day  and  sleep  at  night.  Some  people  call 
these  sleeping-porches.  Even  perfectly  well  persons 
often  sleep  out-of-doors,  because  it  makes  them  feel  so 
much  better." 

The  last  composition  that  Miss  Murray  read  was 
written  by  Elsie  Rider. 

I  have  never  seen  the  ocean,  and  I  haven't  seen 
my  grandmother  since  I  was  five  years  old,  so  I 
should  spend  my  hundred  dollars  in  going  with  my 


IF  YOU  HAD  A  HUNDRED   DOLLARS    189 

mother  to  visit  her.  She  lives  near  the  ocean,  and 
from  the  bedroom  that  my  mother  slept  in  when  she 
was  a  girl  you  can  see  the  ships  sailing.  Sometimes 
mother  says  that  it  would  rest  her  five  years'  worth 
if  she  could  sleep  in  her  old  room  once  more.  If  we 
went  it  would  take  eight  hours,  and  we  should  have 
to  eat  our  supper  in  the  dining-car.  I  should  pay 
for  the  supper  out  of  the  hundred  dollars. 

One  of  the  boys  said  that  he  thought  it  was  a  needless 
expense  for  people  to  go  on  visits,  but  Miss  Murray  agreed 
with  Elsie  that  it  would  give  so  much  pleasure  to  both 
the  grandmother  and  the  mother  that  Elsie  would  feel 
well  paid  for  her  effort. 

"  Grandmothers  are  the  nicest  persons  in  the  world/5 
said  Miss  Murray.  "I  wouldn't  take  back  the  visits 
that  I  made  my  grandmother  when  I  was  a  girl  for  a 
good  many  hundreds  of  dollars.  But  it  probably  would 
not  take  all  of  the  money  to  make  that  trip,  Elsie.  What 
would  you  do  with  the  rest  of  it?" 

Elsie  showed  what  a  sympathetic  heart  she  had  by 
her  answer:  "I'd  buy  father  an  overcoat  and  a  set  of 
Dickens.  He  needs  an  overcoat,  and  he  wants  the  books. 
He  is  always  buying  lovely  things  for  mother  and  me." 

"Miss  Murray,"  asked  a  boy,  "don't  you  think  it  is 
all  right  to  spend  money  on  yourself?" 


190  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"Certainly;  but  to  spend  all  of  a  hundred  dollars  on 
yourself  when  the  other  members  of  your  family  had 
none  to  spend  would  certainly  be  selfish.  The  least  that 
anybody  can  do  is  to  share  his  pleasure  with  some  one 
else.  Otherwise  money  isn't  being  made  to  accomplish 
as  much  as  it  might." 

Just  before  school  closed  Miss  Murray  said  that,  while 
none  of  them  had  a  hundred  dollars,  they  could  all  begin 
to  save  and  plan  so  that  some  day  they  could  do  the 
thing  that  they  wanted  to  do  now. 

That  night  Frank  Parsons  went  into  the  kitchen,  where 
his  mother  was  making  jelly. 

"Mother,  if  some  rich  man  died  and  left  you  a  hun- 
dred dollars,  what  should  you  buy?" 

"It's  hard  to  say,  Frank.    We  need  so  many  things." 

Frank  looked  surprised.  He  had  supposed  that  he 
was  the  only  person  in  the  family  who  had  many  wants. 
When  he  explained  the  composition  that  he  had  had  to 
write  at  school,  his  mother  asked  what  he  had  said. 

"Why,  I  said  I  should  build  a  shed  for  a  workshop, 
and  buy  a  kit  of  tools." 

"That  was  sensible,  I  am  sure,"  his  mother  replied. 

For  a  long  time  the  two  talked  about  the  many  possi- 
ble ways  of  spending  a  hundred  dollars.  When  Mr.  Par- 
sons heard  the  discussion,  he  said:  "I  think  it  wouldn't 
be  a  bad  plan  for  us  to  make  a  list  of  the  things  we 


IF  YOU  HAD  A  HUNDRED   DOLLARS    191 

should  really  buy  if  we  had  that  much  extra  money, 
and  from  time  to  time,  as  we  save  a  little,  we  can  get 
some  of  them." 

It  took  nearly  a  week  to  make  out  a  list  that  had  the 
approval  of  the  whole  family.  Many  items  that  were 
put  down  first  were  finally  crossed  out  altogether.  Per- 
haps you  will  be  interested  to  see  part  of  the  list.  Re- 
member that  the  plan  was  to  get  first  what  was  most 
needed. 

1.  $30.00  for  a  new  kitchen  stove.  (The  one  they 
had  was  old  and  almost  worn  out.  It  burned  twice 
as  much  fuel  as  a  good  stove  should.  The  family 
calculated  that  in  two  years  the  new  stove  would 
pay  for  itself.) 

2.  $10.00  for  a  kit  of  tools.  (At  first  the  family 
thought  there  were  other  things  that  ought  to  be 
bought  before  these,  but  Mr.  Parsons  said  that  Frank 
would  be  learning  something  useful,  and  therefore 
the  money  would  be  well  spent.  But  the  under- 
standing was  that  if  Frank  lost  interest  in  the  tools 
and  did  not  use  them  regularly  they  should  be  sold 
and  the  money  turned  into  the  household  account. 
A  part  of  the  basement  was  to  be  used  for  a  work- 
shop.) 

3.  $20.00  for  an  easy,  upholstered  chair  for  the 


192  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

living-room.  (The  family  had  plenty  of  chairs,  but 
there  were  only  two  that  anybody  really  enjoyed 
sitting  in.  So  it  was  decided  that  it  would  be  sen- 
sible to  get  a  well-made  chair  that  had  good  springs, 
and  was  covered  with  simple,  durable  tapestry. 
Frank  was  surprised  that  one  chair  should  cost  so 
much.  "It  will  last  us  twenty  years,"  his  father 
explained.) 

4.  $6.00  for  replating  a  dozen  knives  and  forks. 
(This  was  much  cheaper  than  buying  new  ones.) 

5.  $4.00  for  the  best  quality  cotton  cloth  to  make 
sheets  and  pillow-cases. 

6.  $4.00  for  a  pair  of  rubber  boots  for  Frank. 

7.  $4.00  for  material  for  a  raincoat  for  Frank's 
sister. 

8.  $8.00  for  a  large  dictionary.  (Frank  knew 
where  they  could  buy  a  large,  second-hand  dictionary 
in  excellent  condition  at  that  price;  and  every  mem- 
ber of  the  family  felt  the  need  of  such  a  book.) 


XIX 
CLEANLINESS  AND  THRIFT 

Everybody  knows  that  health;  comfort;  and  even 
wealth  depend  a  great  deal  on  cleanliness.  In  most 
sections  of  the  country  it  is  the  custom  to  clean  house 
every  spring  and  fall.  The  carpets  are  taken  up  and 
beaten;  the  muslin  and  lace  curtains  are  washed  and 
ironed;  the  woodwork  of  the  doors,  windows,  mopboards, 
and  floors  is  scrubbed  with  soap  and  water;  ceilings  are 
whitewashed;  blankets,  comforters,  dresses,  furs,  etc., 
are  taken  out  of  closets  and  drawers  and  hung  out  to 
air,  and  those  not  needed  at  once  are  carefully  packed 
away  with  lavender  or  camphor  to  keep  out  moths. 

When  people  speak  of  the  danger  of  the  slums,  they 
are  not  thinking  so  much  of  the  poverty  of  the  men, 
women,  and  children  who  live  in  these  crowded  sections 
as  of  the  dirty,  dark  houses,  the  bad-smelling  alleys,  and 
the  wretched,  soiled  clothing.  Probably  if  you  should  tell 
a  man  who  lives  in  the  midst  of  dirt  and  discouragement 
that  he  will  never  have  a  chance  of  getting  enough  money 
to  live  on  comfortably  unless  he  cleans  up  himself,  his 
children,  and  his  house,  he  would  laugh  in  your  face. 

193 


194  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

He  would  insist  that  all  he  needed  was  a  steady  job  with 
good  pay,  and  he  would  keep  his  family  looking  as  well 
as  any  other  man's. 

But,  although  such  a  man  as  this  does  not  realize  it, 
dirt  is  expensive.  The  oil  lamp  or  stove  that  explodes 
is  almost  always  one  that  has  not  been  kept  clean.  Bits 
of  oil,  lint,  and  dust  collect  around  the  burner  and  offer 
the  means  for  an  explosion.  Most  of  the  fires  that  burn 
dwellings  to  the  ground  start  in  chimneys  that  are  choked 
with  soot.  A  chimney  that  is  cleaned  and  inspected 
once  a  year  will  probably  never  be  the  cause  of  a  dis- 
astrous fire. 

Dirt  is  said  to  have  been  responsible  for  the  great  fire 
which  in  190S  almost  wiped  out  the  city  of  Chelsea, 
Massachusetts.  The  flames  started  in  some  rubbish  in 
an  old  wooden  building — according  to  one  report  it  was 
in  a  ragpicker's  shed.  But  even  a  ragpicker  could  keep 
the  building  in  which  he  stored  his  rags  clean.  There 
was  really  no  excuse  for  this  terrible  fire  that  cost  mil- 
lions of  dollars  and  great  misery  to  hundreds  of  people. 

Many  a  farmer  owes  his  "hard  luck/'  as  he  calls  it, 
to  his  dirty  barns,  sheds,  and  hen-houses.  Horses  which 
have  to  stand  in  stalls  that  are  not  thoroughly  cleaned 
eveiy  day  get  diseases  which  are  expensive  to  cure,  for 
veterinary  fees  are  large.  Sick  horses  mean  not  only 
doctor's  fees,  but  loss  of  services  to  the  farmer.     Many 


CLEANLINESS  AND  THRIFT  195 

farmers,  however,  will  not  believe  this.  In  a  certain 
country  district  a  wealth}'  city  man  bought  a  large 
farm,  and  built  the  finest  barn  that  could  be  devised. 
The  floors  were  of  cement,  the  woodwork  was  white- 
washed, and  everything  possible  was  done  to  make  the 
building  one  that  could  be  kept  perfectly  clean.  All  his 
neighbors  laughed  among  themselves  at  the  "new- 
fangled" barn.  But  the  city  man  knew  what  he  was 
about.  His  horses  and  cattle  were  the  healthiest  and 
most  profitable  in  the  town,  and  it  took  fewer  men  to 
do  the  work  than  on  some  of  the  smaller  farms  run  in 
the  old-fashioned  way.  He  proved  that  it  pays  to  keep 
clean. 

One  of  the  most  successful  restaurants  in  a  certain 
large  city  makes  a  special  point  of  cleanliness.  Although 
it  is  situated  in  a  crowded  business  section  where  the  air 
is  full  of  soot  and  dust,  and  although  several  thousand 
people  eat  there  every  day,  it  has  the  appearance  of  whole- 
some cleanliness.    Every  inch  of  the  floor,  woodwork, 

*J  7  7 

counters,  brass,  and  nickel  is  thoroughly  washed  and 
polished  once  a  day,  and  the  floors  and  counters  several 
times.  The  waitresses  never  wear  waists  or  aprons 
that  show  any  sign  of  dirt.  The  owner  prides  himself 
that  only  perfectly  clean,  pure  food  is  served,  and  that 
the  kitchen  and  serving-rooms  are  as  neat  as  is  humanly 
possible  to  make  them.     Probably  this  restaurant  makes 


196  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

more  money  for  its  owner  than  any  other  in  the  city, 
and  it  is  chiefly  because  of  its  motto:   "Be  clean." 

If  restaurant  keepers  find  that  it  puts  dollars  in  their 
pockets  to  have  food,  dishes,  stoves,  floors,  and  windows 
clean,  surely  housekeepers  need  to  keep  their  houses 
clean.  "But,"  said  one  woman,  "in  these  days  of  dust 
and  dirt,  it  would  take  me  every  minute  of  the  day  to 
keep  my  house  really  clean.  I  can't  afford  to  hire  any 
one  to  help  me,  and  so  I  do  the  best  I  can  alone,  but  there 
is  plenty  of  dust  around  all  the  time." 

This  woman  is  right  in  saying  that  it  is  impossible 
for  a  person  to  keep  a  house  perfectly  clean.  All  that 
anybody  can  hope  to  do  is  to  have  the  rooms  whole- 
some and  healthfully  clean.  To  do  this  does  not  require 
ceaseless  work,  but  careful  planning. 

If  a  woman  has  to  do  her  own  washing,  ironing,  and 
cleaning,  with  only  the  help  of  her  family,  she  is  very 
foolish  if  she  does  not  make  the  work  as  easy  as  possible. 
She  should  not  fill  her  house  with  things  that  gather 
dust  and  germs. 

One  of  the  hardest  rooms  in  the  house  to  keep  clean 
is  the  bedroom,  especially  if  it  has  a  carpet  on  the  floor, 
draperies  at  the  windows,  and  knickknacks  scattered 
over  walls,  bureau,  and  stand.  But  the  need  of  cleanli- 
ness is  especially  great  in  the  bedroom,  and  it  is  less  ex- 
pensive to  keep  it  clean  than  to  let  dust  and  dirt  accumu- 


CLEANLINESS  AND  THRIFT  197 

late.  It  is  a  good  rule  to  have  as  few  articles  as  possible 
in  a  bedroom,  and  only  such  as  can  be  easily  cleaned. 

The  bedstead  that  is  most  serviceable  is  one  made  of 
iron  and  painted  white.  This  can  be  thoroughly  washed 
with  hot  water  and  soap  as  often  as  necessary,  and  is 
much  better  than  those  advertised  by  some  stores  as 
brass  beds.  The  latter  cost  more,  and  usually  are  not 
brass  at  all,  but  are  made  of  iron  with  a  thin  coating 
of  brass,  which  wears  off  in  a  short  time.  Beds  made  of 
wood  are  often  very  beautiful,  but  they  require  much 
time  to  keep  them  clean  and  well  polished.  It  is  easy 
for  insects  to  burrow  into  the  corners  and  soft  parts  of 
the  wood,  and  make  their  nests  there.  To  get  rid  of 
bedbugs  or  any  other  kind  of  insect  is  costly,  both  in 
time  and  in  money.  If  a  family  wants  always  to  be 
free  from  them,  it  should  have  only  iron  beds,  and  should 
wash  these   thoroughly. 

It  is  often  more  difficult  to  keep  a  mattress  clean  and 
healthy  than  the  bedstead,  for  one  cannot  scour  a  mat- 
tress with  soap  and  water.  In  the  first  place  the  mattress 
must  be  of  fair  quality;  a  sensible  woman  Avill  not  buy 
the  cheapest  one  that  she  can  find,  for  this  may  last  only 
half  as  long  as  one  that  costs  a  few  dollars  more.  A 
person  should  buy  articles  like  mattresses  only  at  reliable 
stores,  where  the  clerks  will  show  any  customer  samples 
of  the  filling  of  each  kind.     A  good  mattress  with  proper 


198  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

care  will  last  many  years.  Once  in  two  weeks,  at  least, 
all  the  bedding,  sheets,  blankets,  pillows,  and  mattresses 
should  be  taken  out-of-doors  for  a  thorough  airing  in  the 
sun. 

One  day  two  women  were  talking  about  a  neighbor. 

"She's  all  the  time  trying  to  show  off,"  said  one. 
"Every  week  she  spreads  all  her  blankets,  puffs,  and  mat- 
tresses out  on  her  line  to  let  us  know  how  expensive  her 
things  are." 

"Yes,"  said  the  other  woman,  "and  more  than  that, 
she's  always  hanging  out  her  furs  and  silk  dresses.  She 
must  be  terribly  proud." 

These  women  were  all  wrong  in  their  judgment.  The 
woman  who  filled  her  lines  once  a  week  with  the  contents 
of  her  bedroom  was  not  proud,  but  sensible,  for  her 
things  would  keep  clean  and  last  longer  than  theirs. 

When  the  mattress  has  been  aired  it  should  be  thor- 
oughly brushed  with  a  stout  whisk-broom  that  can  get 
into  all  the  corners.  It  is  the  dusty  corners  of  carpets, 
mattresses,  and  closets  that  breed  insects  and  decay. 
In  hot  weather  everything  soils  more  quickly  than  in 
cool  weather,  and  this  is  true  of  mattresses,  although 
many  families  do  not  seem  to  realize  it.  Even  if  a  per- 
son takes  a  sponge  bath  every  night,  as  he  should,  on 
very  hot  nights  there  will  be  some  perspiration  from  the 
body  which  is  absorbed  by  the  night  garments  and  sheets, 


CLEANLINESS  AND  THRIFT  199 

and  often  by  the  mattress  covering.  Sheets  and  night 
garments  are  washed  every  week,  but  it  is  difficult  to 
clean  mattresses.  In  warm  weather,  therefore,  it  is  sen- 
sible to  put  an  extra  sheet  over  the  mattress,  as  a  means 
of  protection. 

When  cold  weather  comes  every  woman  looks  over  her 
supply  of  warm  bed  coverings  to  see  if  she  has  enough 
to  keep  her  family  comfortable.  One  woman,  after 
examining  her  stock,  took  ten  dollars  and  went  to  a 
large  department  store  to  buy  three  blankets.  Her 
thirteen-year  old  daughter  Eleanor  accompanied  her. 
While  the  salesman  was  showing  her  mother  the  best 
three-dollar  blankets,  Eleanor  espied  some  pretty  puffs. 

aOh,  mother,"  she  urged,  " please  look  at  these  before 
you  buy  the  blankets.  I  should  like  to  have  this  one 
with  pink  roses  for  my  bed.  Sarah  Johnson  has  one 
with  violets  on  it.  She  folds  it  up  and  keeps  it  at  the 
foot  of  the  bed,  and  uses  it  only  on  very  cold  nights. 
Oh,  please!" 

Mrs.  McCloud  seemed  to  like  the  puffs  as  well  as  her 
daughter,  and  asked  the  clerk  the  prices.  The  ones 
that  Eleanor  had  been  looking  at  were  only  two  dollars. 
The  clerk  tried  to  explain  that  the  blankets  would  be 
much  more  serviceable,  but  Mrs.  McCloud  was  think- 
ing that  three  puffs  at  two  dollars  would  cost  only  six 
dollars,  while  three  blankets  at  three  dollars  would  leave 


200  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

her  only  one  dollar  out  of  her  ten.  And  Eleanor  was 
thinking  of  the  pink  roses.     So  the  puffs  were  bought. 

That  night  when  Mr.  and  Mrs.  McCloud  and  Eleanor 
were  eating  supper,  the  expressman  brought  to  the  door 
a  bulky  package. 

...  "What's  that?"  asked  Mr.  McCloud,  as  Eleanor  left 
her  half-finished  supper  and  began  excitedly  to  cut  the 
€ords. 

"You  know  we  needed  some  new  blankets/'  explained 
Mrs.  McCloud.  "I  bought  puffs  instead  and  saved  three 
dollars." 

"See,  isn't  this  beautiful?"  exclaimed  Eleanor,  as  she 
trailed  the  pink  rose-patterned  puff  over  the  floor. 

"H'm!"  said  Mr.  McCloud,  looking  thoughtful. 
"Puff?  What's  that,  one  of  those  new-fangled  bed 
quilts?    Let's  feel  of  it." 

"It's  silk,"  said  Eleanor  eagerly,  "and  the  pink  roses 
just  match  my  wall-paper." 

"Silk!"  said  Mr.  McCloud  disgustedly;  "the  covering 
is  only  cheap  cotton  with  a  glaze  on  it,  and  as  near  as 
I  can  tell  by  the  feeling,  it's  filled  with  cotton,  and  not 
any  too  much  of  that." 

"Yes,  but  most  of  the  blankets  are  part  cotton,"  said 
Mrs.  McCloud  reassuringly. 

"Well,  I  think  you  and  Eleanor  have  wasted  your  six 
dollars.     These  things  will  never  keep  us  warm.     You 


The  clerk  tried  to  explain  that  the  blankets  would  be  much 

more  serviceable. 


CLEANLINESS  AND  THRIFT  201 

forgot  that  when  you  pay  three  dollars  for  a  blanket 
you  are  getting  a  pair  of  them — two  thicknesses — and  one 
thickness  is  a  good  deal  warmer  than  one  of  these  flimsy 
things.  And  not  only  that/5  continued  Mr.  McCloud, 
"but  how  long  do  you  think  one  of  these  puffs  will  last? 
You  can't  wash  it;  the  cotton  would  all  lump  up,  and  if 
you  sent  it  to  a  cleanser  you  would  have  to  pay  seventy- 
five  cents  or  a  dollar,  and  then  it  wouldn't  look  veiy 
well.  It  is  only  the  nicest  puffs  made  of  wool  or  down 
that  are  worth  sending  to  the  cleanser.  A  blanket  can 
be  washed  clean  with  soap  and  water  by  anybody  that 
is  strong." 

"I  never  thought  about  the  washing,"  said  Mrs. 
McCloud  weakly. 

"Well,  there's  an  old  cotton  puff  packed  away  some- 
where in  the  attic,"  said  Mr.  McCloud.  "Try  washing 
that  and  see  how  you  come  out." 

So,  after  the  supper  dishes  were  washed,  Mrs.  McCloud 
and  Eleanor  took  the  old  puff  down  into  the  basement 
and  washed  it  carefully  in  warm  soap  and  water.  When 
it  was  wrung  out,  even  Eleanor  had  to  laugh,  although 
her  throat  was  full  of  lumps  at  the  thought  of  giving  up 
her  beautiful  puff.  The  clean  puff  looked  like  a  cobbled 
pavement. 

"Before  I  was  married,  Eleanor,"  explained  her 
father,  "I  used  to  work  in  a  dry-goods  store,  and  I  know 


202  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

something  about  blankets  and  puffs.  A  puff  that  is 
worth  buying  will  cost  you  about  ten  dollars,  and  we 
can't  afford  that.  You'll  have  to  change  these  for  the 
three-dollar  blankets,  I  think." 

There  are  many  people  like  Eleanor  and  her  mother 
who  spend  their  money  thoughtlessly  for  articles  that 
are  comparatively  cheap,  but  will  prove  expensive  in  the 
end.  It  pays  to  buy  sheets  of  good  quality  and  as  good 
blankets  as  one  can  afford,  and  simple  white  spreads. 
Colored  bedspreads,  or  spreads  with  colored  borders, 
cannot  be  cleaned  easily,  and  are  therefore  more  ex- 
pensive. Sheets  must  be  washed  every  week  or  they  will 
get  so  soiled  that  they  will  tear  apart  readily. 

Next  to  the  bed,  the  closets  and  bureau  drawers  are 
the  parts  of  a  bedroom  most  difficult  to  keep  clean. 
But  dirt  in  closets  means  moths  and  carpet-bugs,  and  no 
family  is  so  rich  that  it  can  afford  to  furnish  good  clothes 
for  these  insects  to  feed  on.  To  keep  out  moths  and 
other  insects,  closets  and  drawers  must  be  kept  per- 
fectly clean.  All  woollen  articles  must  either  be  hung 
in  a  clean  closet  and  taken  outdoors  to  be  thoroughly 
brushed  every  week  or  be  cleaned  and  then  folded  up 
with  moth  balls,  wrapped  in  newspapers,  and  shut  away 
in  drawers,  trunks,  or  boxes  that  are  free  from  moths. 

The  bedroom  floors  that  are  easiest  to  clean  are  either 
painted  or  made  of  hardwood,  with  light-weight  rugs 


CLEANLINESS  AND  THRIFT  203 

that  can  be  taken  outdoors  and  shaken.  Curtain  drap- 
eries make  a  bedroom  look  so  homelike  that  it  would  not 
be  wise  to  suggest  going  without  them,  but  the  stores 
are  full  of  curtain  materials  that  are  not  worth  carrying 
home.  Only  a  washable  material  should  be  bought, 
and  tins  means  muslins,  scrims,  or  crepes  of  good  qual- 
ity. Fancy  edges  and  colored  borders  may  look  pretty 
at  first,  but  they  will  not  wear  well,  and  the  colors  will 
fade  or  "run"  when  washed. 

White,  cream,  and  ecru  are  better  for  curtains  than 
other  colors,  for  they  look  as  well  after  they  are  laundered 
as  before.  One  high-priced  summer  hotel  which  uses 
white  scrim  for  all  its  bedroom  windows  has  not  had  to 
buy  new  material  for  five  years.  On  the  other  hand,  a 
woman  who  bought  some  cream-colored  lacey  curtains 
with  a  blue  border  had  to  throw  them  away  before  the 
end  of  a  year.  They  had  been  so  torn  and  stretched 
in  washing  that  there  was  no  shape  to  them,  and  the 
colored  border  had  faded  to  an  ugly  gray. 

Next  to  the  bedrooms  the  part  of  the  house  that  most 
needs  attention  is  the  kitchen  and  pantry.  Probably 
the  grocer's  bill  is  the  largest  one  of  all,  and  it  is  neces- 
sary not  to  let  any  food  go  to  waste  or  to  be  spoiled 
through  lack  of  attention  to  cleanliness.  Refrigerators, 
pantry  shelves,  and  all  places  where  food  is  kept  must 
be  absolutely  clean.     If  a  partly  decayed  tomato  or  a 


204  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

moldy  piece  of  cheese  is  overlooked  in  the  corner  of  a 
refrigerator,  it  may  spoil  every  other  bit  of  food  in  it*. 

One  of  the  best  housekeepers  in  a  small  town  had  the 
reputation  of  being  able  to  make  a  cent  go  farther  than 
anybody  else.  This  is  her  own  explanation  of  the  way 
she  did  it. 

"When  we  were  first  married  John  and  I  went  to  visit 
his  city  cousin,  who  is  a  rich  doctor.  One  night  the 
doctor  took  us  to  dinner  at  one  of  the  biggest  hotels  that 
I  ever  saw  in  my  life.  Every  table  had  roses  on  it,  and 
the  carpets  were  just  like  meadow  grass — they  were  so 
soft.  All  the  lights  looked  like  peach-colored  flowers. 
After  dinner  what  did  John's  cousin  do,  but  get  the  hotel 
clerk  to  have  somebody  show  us  through  the  basements 
where  all  the  cooking  and  serving  are  done.  I  could 
hardly  believe  my  eyes,  everything  was  so  clean.  The 
steward  told  us  that  they  didn't  have  a  thing  in  the 
kitchen,  storerooms,  or  serving-rooms  that  couldn't  be 
scrubbed  clean  with  hot  soap  and  water.  The  pans 
shone  like  a  pond  in  the  sunshine,  and  all  the  kettles 
were  made  of  copper  and  glistened  like  my  grandmother's 
teapot  that  I  keep  on  the  sideboard.  The  floor  looked 
as  if  it  were  made  of  marble  and  so  did  the  refrigerators. 
Honestly,  I  couldn't  see  a  speck  of  dirt  anywhere. 

"'It  must  cost  very  much  to  keep  everything  looking 
so  fine/  I  said. 


CLEANLINESS  AND  THRIFT  205 

"'Oh,  no,'  replied  the  steward.  'It  would  cost  us 
more  if  we  didn't  keep  things  like  this/ 

"I  suppose  my  face  looked  like  a  question-mark,  for 
he  went  on  to  explain: 

"'We  have  only  the  first  quality  of  everything  here — 
cream,  eggs,  meat,  vegetables,  pastries,  and  we  can't 
afford  to  have  dirt  around.  A  dirty  kitchen  costs  more 
than  a  clean  one.  There  are  harmful  germs  in  all  dust 
and  dirt.  The  moment  that  these  germs  come  in  contact 
with  food,  the  food  begins  to  spoil,  and  people  will  not 
pay  high  prices  for  what  is  the  least  bit  tainted.' 

"Well,  what  that  steward  said,  and  what  I  saw,  set 
me  to  thinking,  and  when  I  got  home  my  mind  was  made 
up  that  dirt  should  never  spoil  any  of  my  food. 

"  Once  a  week  I  scour  my  refrigerator  with  hot  soap  and 
water,  and  leave  it  open  to  the  fresh  air  until  it  is  thoro- 
ughly dry.  I  keep  milk,  butter,  and  liquid  things  carefully 
covered  so  that  they  cannot  absorb  anything  harmful. 

"My  bread  and  cake  jars  I  scald  out  once  a  week  and 
put  in  the  sun  or  out-of-doors  to  dry;  this  means  that  I 
never  have  any  moldy  bread  to  throw  away  as  I  used  to. 
Diy  pieces  of  bread  or  cake  I  set  in  the  oven  a  few  min- 
utes to  brown,  then  put  away  in  a  clean  tin  pail  .with  a 
tight  cover,  to  use  later  for  puddings. 

"I  often  used  to  have  vegetables  and  fruit  spoil  on 
my  hands.    This  was  expensive,  of  course,  but  I  always 


206  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

thought  that  a  certain  amount  of  waste  was  necessary. 
Now  I  know  better.  Just  as  soon  as  the  grocery  boy 
delivers  my  purchases  I  examine  everything.  If  I  find 
any  spoiled  fruits  or  vegetables,  I  make  the  boy  take 
them  back.  The  apples,  tomatoes,  and  the  like  that 
have  soft  parts  or  look  dead  ripe,  I  cook  up  at  once  to 
prevent  their  spoiling.  I  sort  over  my  potatoes,  apples, 
onions,  and  other  vegetables  every  few  days  to  make 
sure  that  none  of  them  are  decaying.  Once  I  shouldn't 
have  thought  of  such  a  thing,  but  now  I  see  that  the 
boxes  and  baskets  that  I  keep  my  vegetables  in  are  al- 
ways clean. 

"The  greatest  trials  of  all  my  housekeeping  experi- 
ence were  water-bugs  and  red  ants.  I  knew  that  if  bits 
of  food  were  left  around  the  ants  would  appear,  and  so  I 
scoured  my  shelves  until  they  were  perfectly  clean.  I 
found  that  the  sink  and  the  sink  closet  must  be  cared  for 
as  thoroughly  as  the  pantry,  so  I  filled  all  the  cracks  and 
crevices  with  putty  and  painted  the  floor  and  the  sides 
of  the  closet  white  so  that  no  dirt  should  escape  me,  and 
finally  the  water-bugs  disappeared. 

"The  first  year  after  my  visit  to  the  city  hotel  I  saved 
fifty  dollars  by  being  cleaner  and  more  careful." 

What  this  woman  did  was  worth  while,  but  she  is  only 
one  of  the  many  who  have  proved  that  cleanliness  always 
pays,  whether  at  school,  at  home,  or  at  work. 


XX 

OWNING  A  HOME 

"  Somebody's  bought  the  lot  at  the  end  of  the  street, 
I  guess/'  said  Frank  Lansing  one  night  at  supper.  "Any- 
way, the  sign  For  Sale  has  been  taken  down.  I  suppose 
now  we  can't  play  football  there  any  more." 

"Why,  yes,  you  can  for  the  present,"  said  his  father. 

At  the  questioning  look  in  Frank's  face,  Mr.  Lansing 
said:  "I've  just  bought  that  lot,  and  until  I  get  around 
to  build,  you  boys  may  have  all  the  fun  on  it  that  you 
please." 

Frank  looked  as  if  he  couldn't  believe  his  ears. 

"Why,  I  thought  we  were  poor!';  he  exclaimed  at 
last. 

Mrs.  Lansing  answered  him  by  saying:  "It  depends 
upon  what  you  mean  by  being  poor.  We  certainly  aren't 
rich." 

"Yes,  but  I  thought  it  took  a  great  deal  of  money  to 
build  a  house,  more  than  to  buy  an  automobile,  and  when 
I  asked  father  if  we  couldn't  have  an  automobile  he  said 
those  were  only  for  folks  much  better  off  than  we  were." 

"Oh,  but  I  think  it  would  be  just  beautiful  to  own 

207 


208  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

the  house  we  live  in!"  broke  in  Frank's  sister,  Miriam. 
"Can  we  have  plate-glass  windows?" 

"Both  of  you  are  old  enough  to  understand  something 
about  our  family  finances/'  said  Mr.  Lansing,  taking 
out  his  memorandum-book,  "so  I  am  going  to  explain 
about  the  house." 

"I  don't  believe  Miriam  even  knows  what  finances 
means,"  remarked  Frank  ungraciously. 

"Doesn't  it  have  something  to  do  with  money?"  she 
asked. 

"Yes,"  said  her  father,  "and  unless  all  the  members 
of  a  family  understand  how  money  should  be  saved  and 
spent,  they  are  likely  always  to  be  poor.  Now,  this  is 
how  rich  and  how  poor  we  are,"  and  Mr.  Lansing  spoke 
slowly : 

1.  We  have  no  debts. 

"That  doesn't  mean  anything,  does  it?"  interrupted 
Frank. 

"It  certainly  does.  A  good  many  men  who  own  auto- 
mobiles and  wear  finer  clothes  than  we  do,  owe  so  much 
money  that  if  they  were  to  pay  all  their  debts  they 
wouldn't  have  a  cent  left.  You  would  be  surprised  if 
you  knew  how  many  families  have  gone  into  debt  just  to 
buy  an  automobile.  By  keeping  our  bills  paid  promptly, 
we  have  the  reputation  among  the  business  men  in  town 


OWNING  A  HOME  209 

of  being  reliable  people.  A  poor  man  whose  credit  is 
good  is  really  richer  than  a  man  who  has  fine  things  but 
is  deeply  in  debt  and  distrusted  by  everybody.  Often  a 
poor  man  can  borrow  money  when  a  supposedly  rich 
man  cannot. 
"But  to  go  on: 

2.  I  have  five  hundred  dollars  in  the  savings-bank. 
The  bank  pays  four  per  cent  interest,  so  that  this 
money  earns  me  twenty  dollars  a  year. 

3.  We  own  all  the  furnishings  in  this  house,  and 
most  of  them  are  of  good  quality  and  will  last  us 
many  years. 

4.  I  have  just  bought  and  paid  eight  hundred 
dollars  for  the  lot  at  the  end  of  the  street. 

5.  I  have  a  good  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  a  steady 
position,  with  a  salary  of  twelve  hundred  dollars  a 
year.  By  being  careful  and  thrifty,  I  think  we  can 
live  on  nine  hundred  dollars  until  Frank  is  through 
the  high  school. 

6.  We  are  all  in  good  health. 

7.  I  have  my  life  insured  for  three  thousand  dol- 
lars. 

"Now  it  seems  to  me  that  we  aren't  exactly  poor,  and 
if  we  always  spend  our  money  wisely  we  need  never  be." 


210  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

"But  where's  the  money  to  build  a  house?"  asked 
Frank.  "  It  takes  about  five  hundred  dollars  just  to  build 
a  fireproof  automobile  garage,  so  I  should  think  it  would 
take  a  great  deal  more  for  a  house  to  live  in." 

"Yes,  it  will  cost  at  least  three  thousand  dollars  to 
build  us  a  good,  plain,  substantial  house." 

Frank  looked  a  little  woe-begone.  He  was  thinking 
that  it  would  take  many  years  for  his  father  to  save  that 
amount  of  money,  and  he  could  not  see  how  they  would 
ever  get  an  automobile. 

But  as  his  father  went  on  to  explain  his  plan,  Frank 
became  interested  in  spite  of  himself. 

Mr.  Lansing  said  that  he  not  only  put  money  into  the 
savings-bank  but  into  a  co-operative  bank  as  well,  and 
he  explained  that  this  co-operative  bank  would  lend  him 
money  with  which  to  build. 

"Can  anybody  get  money  that  way?"  asked  Miriam. 

"No,  a  person  can't  borrow  from  one  of  these  banks 
unless  he  first  has  a  little  property,  and  is  also  a  share- 
holder in  the  bank.  I  now  own  a  house  lot,  and  I  am  a 
shareholder  because  every  month  I  deposit  ten  dollars 
in  the  bank.  Even  if  I  put  in  only  one  dollar  a  month  I 
should  be  a  shareholder.  If  they  will  lend  me  the  money 
necessary  to  build  a  house,  I  shall  pay  it  back  in  monthly 
instalments,  which  will  be  only  a  little  more  than  we 
now  spend  for  rent.     By  the  time  you  are  ready  for  col- 


OWNING  A  HOME  211 

lege  the  house  will  be  paid  for,  if  nothing  unfortunate 
happens." 

It  was  evidently  this  last  remark  that  stayed  in 
Prank's  mind,  for  the  next  morning  he  asked  his  mother 
how  he  could  go  to  college  if  it  took  all  his  father's 
money  to  pay  for  the  house. 

"When  the  house  is  paid  for  there  will  be  no  rent  to 
pay,  only  the  taxes,  insurance,  and  repairs.  So  the  money 
that  is  now  going  for  rent  can  help  toward  your  college 
bills.  Then,  too,  at  just  about  that  time  your  father 
will  get  three  thousand  dollars  from  his  life  insurance." 

"From  his  life  insurance?'  echoed  Frank.  "Will  he 
be  dead  then?" 

"No,  indeed,  some  people  take  out  the  kind  of  life 
insurance  that  yields  money  only  when  the  person  who 
is  insured  dies.  Then  the  money  goes  to  the  family. 
But  your  father's  is  the  kind  which  is  paid  to  him  if  he 
is  still  alive  at  a  certain  time." 

"We  had  something  about  life  insurance  in  arith- 
metic the  other  day,"  remarked  Frank,  "but  I  didn't 
understand  it  very  well." 

The  next  day  at  the  morning  recess  Frank  did  some- 
thing so  unusual  that  his  teacher,  Miss  Allison,  inquired 
if  he  were  ill.  He  stayed  at  his  desk  figuring  earnestly 
over  some  examples  in  insurance  and  in  partial  pay- 
ments. 


212  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

Frank  proudly  confided  to  Miss  Allison  that  his  father 
was  going  to  build  a  house,  and  Miriam  had  already 
told  her  chum,  so  that  in  a  few  days  all  their  friends 
knew  of  the  event. 

"0,  Frank,"  said  Eben  Jones,  as  he  overtook  him  on 
the  way  home,  "we're  buying  the  house  we  live  in. 
That's  almost  as  good  as  building  one,  isn't  it?" 

"How  do  you  buy  it?"  asked  Frank.  "Do  you  pay 
the  co-operative  bank  every  month?" 

"No,  we  pay  the  man  who  owns  it.  Father  gave  him 
five  hundred  dollars  at  first  and  pays  him  twenty-five 
dollars  a  month.  I  tell  you  we  have  to  be  good  savers  at 
our  house.  I  haven't  had  a  new  suit  for  two  years. 
Look  at  the  back  of  this  coat;  you  can  see  your  face  in 
it,  can't  you?" 

Frank  asked  Eben  to  go  home  with  him,  and  over  in 
the  empty  lot  that  Mr.  Emerson  had  just  bought,  the 
two  boys  discussed  houses  as  earnestly  as  if  they  were 
already  property-owners. 

Each  member  of  the  Lansing  family  started  in  at  once 
to  keep  what  they  called  a  Savings  Memorandum-Book. 
Each  person  put  down  every  time  he  had  saved  or  earned 
any  money,  with  the  date.  Miriam  and  Frank  tried  to 
outdo  each  other  in  making  the  most  suggestions  as  to 
ways  of  saving. 

More  than  once  Mrs.  Lansing  had  been  afraid  that 


OWNING  A  HOME  213 

Frank  was  inclined  to  be  lazy,  but  there  were  now  no 
indications  of  this.  Just  the  thought  that  he  was  help- 
ing save  for  the  house  seemed  to  increase  his  self-respect. 
All  his  spending-money  he  carefully  hoarded. 

When  Mr.  Lansing  saw  how  genuinely  interested  both 
Frank  and  Miriam  were  in  the  house,  he  took  pains  to 
tell  them  about  his  talks  with  the  builders  and  archi- 
tects. One  Saturday  afternoon  he  took  Frank  to  the 
architect's  office,  where  they  saw  the  first  plans. 

"Father,"  said  Frank,  on  their  way  home,  "those  men 
treated  you  just  as  respectfully  as  if  you  were  rich.  Do 
you  suppose  they  think  you  have  plenty  of  money, 
enough  to  build  the  house  and  more  besides?" 

"No,"  replied  Mr.  Lansing,  "but  the  moment  a  per- 
son buys  or  builds  a  house  he  is  an  important  person 
in  the  eyes  of  business  men.  To  own  a  house  means 
that  you  have  money  to  invest,  and  that  you  know  how 
to  spend  wisely.  Tonight  after  supper,  make  out  a  list 
of  all  the  men  in  this  town  that  you  think  own  their 
houses,  and  see  if  they  are  not  recognized  as  prominent, 
successful  men." 

After  supper  Frank  took  pencil  and  paper  and  started 
his  list.  When  he  showed  it  to  his  father,  he  said:  "I 
can't  find  out  who  own  their  houses,  but  I  have  written 
down  the  names  of  the  men  that  I  think  are  successful. 
Can't  you  tell  me  which  ones  own  their  houses?' 


214  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

So  Frank  and  his  father  went  over  the  list  together. 
They  found  only  two  names  that  did  not  belong  on  it. 

"  No,  Frank,  Mr.  Saywood  and  John  Brooks  are  both 
large  spenders,  and  do  a  great  deal  of  talking,  but  they 
own  no  property  and  are  usually  in  debt.  In  five  years' 
time  I  think  you  won't  hear  anything  from  them." 

The  building  of  the  Lansing  house  was  the  beginning 
of  better  days  for  the  whole  family.  Frank  studied  and 
worked  as  he  never  had  before.  He  was  as  proud  of  his 
attic  gymnasium  and  of  his  clean  cellar  as  Miriam  was 
of  her  big  bedroom,  with  its  window-seat  and  its  closet 
door  with  a  mirror  built  into  it.  Frank  was  given  one 
of  the  attic  rooms  for  his  gymnasium  on  condition  that 
he  take  all  the  care  of  the  cellar,  and  keep  it  neat  and 
orderly.  Every  new  friend  that  Frank  made  had  to  in- 
spect the  cellar,  its  clean-swept  cement  floor,  the  neatly 
arranged  ash-barrels,  the  piles  of  newspapers  tied  together 
ready  for  the  ragman,  the  preserve-closet,  and  the  home- 
made carpenter's  bench.  And  Miriam's  pride  was  her 
bedroom  and  the  bathroom,  both  of  which  it  was  her 
work  to  keep  clean  and  in  order. 

"Mother  says,"  she  explained  to  one  friend,  "that  I 
must  keep  these  rooms  so  that  a  guest  could  be  shown 
either  room  at  any  time." 

"The  way  to  appreciate  your  home,"  said  Mrs.  Lan- 
sing to  her  husband  one  day,  "is  to  own  it.     I  get  more 


OWNING  A  HOME  215 

pleasure  out  of  saving  to  pay  for  this  than  I  ever  supposed 
possible.  Every  time  I  have  been  calling  or  shopping 
and  get  back  home,  I  say  to  myself :  '  It  is  ours !  It  is 
ours!'  I  feel  proud  of  you  and  the  children  to  think 
that  we  could  do  it." 


XXI 
HOW  A  NATION  HELPS  TO  SAVE 

One  of  the  most  interesting  gifts  of  money  made  in 
recent  years  is  that  of  $225,000  by  the  Russell  Sage 
Foundation,  to  buy  a  refuge  for  migratory  birds.  Many 
large  cities  have  homes  for  friendless  cats  and  dogs, 
but  this  is  the  first  time  that  money  has  been  given  for 
a  refuge  for  birds.  With  this  money  85,000  acres  of  land 
have  been  bought  on  the  Louisiana  coast  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  These  acres  are  to  be  kept  in  the  condition 
that  will  make  them  most  attractive  to  the  thousands 
of  birds  that  are  each  year  driven  south  by  the  cold 
storms  of  winter. 

At  first  we  may  wonder  why  so  large  a  sum  of  money 
should  be  spent  in  this  way,  but  when  we  are  told 
that  insects  cost  this  country  every  year  more  than 
$400,000,000  by  ruining  fruit,  grain,  cotton,  and  vege- 
tables, and  that  birds  help  to  destroy  these  insects,  we 
understand.  Farmers  spread  poisons  and  work  dili- 
gently to  kill  the  pests  that  do  so  much  damage,  but 
none  of  their  remedies  are  so  effective  as  the  work  of  the 

216 


HOW  A  NATION  HELPS  TO  SAVE        217 

birds.  As  we  all  know,  many  birds  feed  largely  on  in- 
sects, and  where  the  birds  most  abound  there  the  injury 
to  the  farmers'  crops  is  the  least.  Therefore,  it  is  to 
aid  the  farmers,  and  to  make  our  food  cost  us  less,  that 
this  refuge  for  birds  has  been  established. 

This  shows  how  important  in  the  eyes  of  our  thought- 
ful men  are  the  food  crops  of  our  country.  Now,  as 
never  before,  congressmen  at  Washington  and  business 
men  everywhere  are  trying  to  prevent  useful  things  from 
being  wasted.  Birds  are  protected,  not  only  because  they 
eat  insects,  but  because  they  also  feed  on  weed  seeds. 
One  of  the  men  in  the  United  States  Biological  Survey 
has  estimated  that  in  Iowa  in  one  season  the  tree  sparrows 
ate  1,750,000  pounds  of  weed  seed.  It  is  hard  to  believe 
that  such  small  creatures  as  the  sparrows  could  take  care 
of  such  a  large  diet,  but  birds  are  big  eaters.  And  it  is 
less  expensive  to  let  them  keep  down  the  weeds  than  for 
the  farmer  to  plough  them  up. 

Did  you  realize  that  a  country  must  be  as  saving  and 
thrifty  as  families  have  to  be?  When  this  country  was 
first  settled  it  seemed  to  have  boundless  forests,  mead- 
ows, rivers,  mineral  wealth,  and  fertile  soil,  and  no  one 
thought  of  saving  trees  or  land  or  brooks.  Our  fathers 
and  grandfathers  and  great-grandfathers  have  been  veiy 
extravagant  with  the  great  country  that  stretches  from 
ocean  to  ocean  and,  as  a  result,  all  of  us  and  those  who 


218  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

are  born  after  us  must  be  very  saving.  The  govern- 
ment is  spending  huge  sums  of  money  in  helping  us 
plant  trees  in  our  woodlands,  to  stock  brooks  and  ponds 
with  fish,  and  to  show  us  how  to  take  care  of  the  soil 
so  that  it  will  not  wear  out. 

Not  long  ago  a  Georgia  farmer  wrote  to  a  man  at 
Washington  who  knew  a  great  deal  about  farm  land, 
saying:  "I  can't  make  any  money  on  my  farm.  Will 
you  help  me?"  The  man  from  Washington  went  down 
to  see  the  farmer. 

"Your  land  is  all  worn  out,"  he  said.  "You  and  those 
who  owned  it  before  you  have  wasted  your  soil.  You 
have  grown  crop  after  crop  just  as  fast  as  you  could 
without  giving  the  land  any  food  or  any  rest.  How 
much  work  do  you  think  you  could  do  if  you  never  had 
any  rest,  and  had  no  food  except  what  you  happened 
to  find  near  you?  Soil  gets  hungry  and  thirsty  just  as 
horses  and  cattle  do.  The  harder  you  make  it  work  by 
growing  corn,  potatoes,  and  other  crops,  the  hungrier  it 
grows.  Give  your  farm  plenty  of  water  and  food  and 
rest,  and  you  will  have  no  trouble." 

The  farmer  looked  at  the  strange  man  as  if  he  thought 
him  "a  bit  queer  in  the  head." 

"Come  with  me,"  said  the  stranger,  "and  I  will  show 
you  what  I  mean." 

Leading  the  farmer  out  into  his  ploughed  land,  he 


HOW  A  NATION  HELPS  TO  SAVE       219 

took  from  his  pocket  a  bottle  of  liquid,  a  little  of  which 
he  poured  into  the  ground  in  several  places.  Then  he 
turned  to  some  rocks.  The  moment  the  fluid  from  the 
bottle  touched  the  rock  it  bubbled  vigorously. 

"I  have  your  secret,"  said  the  man.  "The  rock  bub- 
bled because  there  is  lime  in  it;  the  soil  didn't  bubble 
because  you  have  used  up  all  the  lime.  You  can't  grow 
crops  without  feeding  your  land  lime.  What  I  should 
advise  is  to  grind  up  these  lime  rocks,  and  spread  the 
powder  over  the  soil.  This  would  give  it  what  we  call 
carbonate  of  lime,  wrhich  every  rich  soil  must  have." 

Our  government  employs  men  to  give  all  their  time  to 
studying  the  worn-out  soils  in  different  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, so  that  before  it  is  too  late  they  may  tell  the  farmers 
how  to  care  for  their  land.  Not  every  worn-out  soil 
needs  lime,  but  any  land  that  fails  to  produce  good  crops 
needs  treatment  of  some  kind. 

It  seems  strange  to  think  that  the  time  may  come 
when  this  great  nation  will  be  so  poor  that  large  numbers 
of  people  will  want  to  migrate  to  some  other  country. 
But  men  have  figured  out  that,  unless  we  stop  wasting 
our  minerals,  our  land,  and  our  forests,  we  shall  come  to 
grief.  By  the  time  our  population  is  200,000,000,  if  we 
use  our  land  as  recklessly  as  we  now  do,  it  will  take  all 
the  wheat  that  we  can  raise  to  feed  our  owrn  people,  and 
we  shall  have  none  to  sell  to  other  countries. 


220  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

We  have  destroyed  our  timber  three  times  as  fast  as 
it  grows,  and  already  more  than  half  of  it  has  been  cut 
and  used.  When  we  can  no  longer  mine  our  own  coal 
and  iron,  raise  our  own  wheat  and  timber,  then  we  shall 
begin  to  be  a  poor  nation. 

But  men,  women,  and  children  have  become  alarmed, 
and  all  over  the  country  earnest  efforts  are  being  made 
to  keep  from  wasting  anything  that  nature  gives.  Men 
are  even  planting  trees  in  forests.  Many  of  the  State 
agricultural  experiment  stations  raise  spruce,  pine,  and 
other  seedlings  which  they  send  free  to  any  man  who 
will  plant  them  where  they  will  grow  best. 

Along  the  seashore  the  government  has  built  hatch- 
eries where  lobsters  and  other  fish  are  hatched  to  throw 
into  the  sea  to  multiply  and  furnish  us  with  sea  food. 
We  have  been  wasteful  even  in  our  fishing,  and  now  we 
must  pay  the  penalty.  One  day  recently,  in  the  middle 
of  August,  a  large,  heavily  built  automobile  was  racing 
at  top  speed  across  a  Western  desert  of  the  United  States. 
There  were  five  men  and  a  huge  box,  or  tank,  which  seemed 
to  contain  something  precious,  for  the  men  worked  over 
it  ceaselessly.  Not  for  a  moment  was  it  left  to  itself. 
Even  at  nightfall  they  did  not  stop;  the  automobile 
rushed  on  and  the  men  worked  on.  When  at  last  the 
lights  of  the  little  Oregon  town  to  which  they  were 
bound  came  to  view,  it  was  nearly  midnight,  but  men, 


HOW  A  NATION  HELPS  TO  SAVE        221 

women,  and  a  brass  band  were  waiting  to  welcome  the 
desert  travellers. 

The  interest  centred  in  the  large  box  and  its  contents. 
Can  you  guess  what  it  was?  It  was  several  thousand 
fish,  which  the  fish-warden  of  the  State  and  his  assis- 
tant had  brought  at  the  urgent  request  of  the  towns- 
people, who  wanted  to  stock  their  thin  little  stream.  In 
spite  of  the  fact  that  they  had  made  all  speed,  and  had 
taken  every  possible  care,  never  ceasing  to  stir  the  water 
to  keep  it  fresh,  the  fish  were  dead,  and  the  little  town 
was  bitterly  disappointed.  This  does  not  sound  like  a 
story  of  this  country  of  today.  But  it  is,  and  it  shows 
that  men  are  beginning  to  try  to  make  up  for  the  waste 
of  the  past.  If  we  are  willing  to  be  taught  there  is  no 
reason  why  in  the  coming  years  we  cannot  be  as  saving 
of  resources  as  we  have  been  wasteful  in  the  past. 

Not  only  is  our  government  trying  to  make  the  people 
keep  from  wasting  soil  and  trees,  and  other  natural  re- 
sources, but  it  is  spending  large  sums  of  money  in  study- 
ing how  to  change  swamps  and  deserts  into  fertile  land, 
and  how  to  make  every  part  of  the  country  prosperous. 
It  pa}rs  one  man  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year  just  to  make 
experiments  with  our  fruits  and  vegetables,  to  try  to 
produce  kinds  that  will  be  hardy  enough  to  withstand 
frost  and  heat.  This  man  has  grown  a  hardy  potato 
which  can  be  raised  in  any  part  of  the  United  States, 


222  STORIES  OF  THRIFT 

and  has  added  over  a  million  dollars  to  the  wealth  of 
the  country.  Now  we  even  hear  that  this  man  is  trying 
to  grow  a  new  form  of  cactus  in  the  desert.  In  some  of 
our  Western  States  there  are  big  stretches  of  waste-land, 
or  deserts,  which  have  been  difficult  even  to  cross,  be- 
cause of  the  lack  of  food  and  drink.  But  the  new  kind 
of  cactus  is  juicy  and  good  to  eat,  and  can  be  used  to  sat- 
isfy both  hunger  and  thirst.  This  may  mean  that  some 
time  in  the  future  our  deserts  can  be  travelled  in  perfect 
safety  and  comfort. 

When  we  peer  into  the  future,  can  we  think  of  a 
better  motto  for  our  government,  our  State,  and  our- 
selves than  "Waste  not"? 


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FEB  27  1937 

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